Fansided

Boston Bruins vs Philadelphia Flyers final score: Bruins start off season strong with 2-1 victory

By Catherine Silverman

facebooktwitterreddit

The Boston Bruins laid down the law in physically demanding 2-1 victory over Philadelphia Flyers

Just moments after the Montreal Canadiens fired off their game-clinching final goal, the Boston Bruins did the same hours away.

The Black and Gold defended their home arena, TD Garden, by starting off the game strong, as newly-resigned right wing Reilly Smith fired off the first goal of the night halfway through the first period. The game remained in Boston’s favor until the third period rolled around, when Philadelphia and Boston each netted a goal apiece to bring the final score to 2-1 in the Bruins’ favor.

The Boston Bruins seemed to recover fine from the losses of forward Jarome Iginla to free agency, defenseman Johnny Boychuk to a last-minute trade, and top-line center David Krejci to an injury. They were the dominant team both on offense and defense for the majority of the game, outpacing Philadelphia in both faceoff wins and SOG by nearly ten apiece.

More from Boston Bruins

The only area in which Philadelphia was the dominant team was in hits, although this could largely be contributed to the team’s newly self-appointed enforcer, Luke Schenn. He got into both minor and major scraps with multiple Bruins players throughout the game, including (but not limited to) Torey Krug, Brad Marchand, Dougie Hamilton, and Boston newcomer Bobby Robins.

If the Flyers can take anything away from the game tonight, it’s the team’s need for a more consistent defensive line. While the team clearly didn’t allow the Bruins to walk all over them, the metropolitan division team was clearly the weaker franchise in that aspect. Wayne Simmonds was also nearly invisible throughout the matchup, although this could easily be due in part to him recently coming off an injury.

If Luke Schenn was the breakout player for the Flyers on the blue line, Adam McQuaid earns that honor for the Boston team. The young but enormous blue liner spent the majority of last season sidelined with a lower body injury, but seems determined to prove that he’s back and better than ever.

Both goaltenders put up impressive numbers, with Philadelphia’s Steve Mason posting a .939 SV% and Boston’s Tuukka Rask posting a monstrous .950.

More from FanSided

Home/Boston Bruins