Bruins Notes: Struggling Offense Can’t Break Through Against Flyers

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins lost a 2-0 decision to the Flyers despite out-shooting Philadelphia, 24-19, as the shots on goal didn’t tell the whole story of the game.

The Bruins had plenty of opportunities to put the Flyers away.

The Black and Gold had four power play opportunities in the game, including 1:37 of two-man advantage in the opening period. Unfortunately for Jim Montgomery’s Bruins, they mustered only two shots on Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson, and neither were high-danger chances.

“It’s not good enough,” Montgomery said of the team’s offensive output. “We’re not making plays, we’re not doing enough to generate high-danger scoring chances. Whether that’s a will to go to those areas or not the right game plan. We’re all culpable for not coming out with a victory tonight.”

The Bruins have star power in their lineup, but they are not producing offensively for Boston through the first 10 games of the season.

“I think on every team, your best players, your star players have to carry the load offensively,” Montgomery added. “Those are the players that are out on the power play. Right now, the offense isn’t materializing for us.”

Montgomery added: “There’s areas where we need to be better,” Montgomery said. “Whether it’s shooting the puck into the net when there’s people there, quicker. Not passing up shits, or building our team offense, which at times we’re doing and at times we’re not. It’s a combination of it. It really comes down to decision-making right now.”

To the Flyers’ credit, they blocked 28 Bruins’ shot attempts to keep the puck away from Ersson. It was the most blocks against the Bruins since the Ottawa Senators blocked 29 in 2019, per 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson.

“Maybe we need to be a little bit more direct,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “They’re a little perimetry that team, they play very tight on the inside. You need to get on the inside of them and get pucks to the net.

“We had some opportunities in the second. We didn’t do a good enough job of it in the third. But, you can’t play a perimeter against a team like that. We just need to get inside a little bit more.”

Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Flyers game:

— Joonas Korpisalo had an outstanding night in net for Boston. He made 17 saves between the pipes for the Bruins and gave the team the opportunity to win.

“He didn’t face very many shots, but he faced some high-quality shots,” Montgomery said. “I can think of at least three great saves that gave us the opportunity before it went 1-0.”

— The Bruins played one of their most disciplined hockey games this season. They were penalized for just three infractions, one of which was matching. Boston killed off two Philadelphia power plays in the game.

— The Flyers appeared to be taking it to Bruins forward Matthew Poirtas for the majority of the game. Poitras was rocked by Flyers forward Joel Farabee with under a minute left to play in the first period and was sucker punched by Philadelphia defenseman Emil Andrae after the two battled for a loose puck.

“There was a little kind of skirmish, just trying to play the puck,” Poitras said. “Obviously, I didn’t like the sucker punch.”

— The Bruins will look to get back in the win column when they travel to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes on Thursday night. Puck drop from Lenovo Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch all the action, following an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.