The Bruins dropped their third straight game Sunday with a loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. And one particular moment possibly may have been the deciding factor.
After giving up two first-period goals, Boston was looking for a bit of a spark entering the second period. The B’s nearly got their wish when the team appeared to score after crashing the Flyers’ net midway through, but the call they were looking for never came — not even after the puck trickled over the goal line.
There was no clear signal or announcement regarding the original call on the ice, nor was there an adequate explanation as to why the goal was denied. And that did not please B’s head coach Bruce Cassidy one bit.
“… I guess that’s my issue is there was no call,” Cassidy told NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley after the game, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “They huddle up, have their conversation, which, you want them to get the call right, but there should be some sort of call on the ice originally and then you work from there. So now they call no goal, and you know how those work, right? So, if he calls a goal, the challenge goes to them, and then they’ve got to determine if there was enough. So, that’s my issue a little bit there.”
So, in hindsight, could he have challenged the call?
“It was a split-second decision, I was recommended not to,” Cassidy said. “And who knows whether it cost us a goal or not. But that’s what I was told at the end that, when they did come over, that our stick pushed the goalie’s pad into the net. So, once they tell you that, you know your chances aren’t good.”
Here are some more notes from Sunday’s Bruins-Flyers game:
— Another flat start put the B’s in a hole they simply couldn’t climb out of.
The Flyers’ two first-period goals were enough to keep Boston at bay Sunday evening. A two-goal third period gave Boston a glimmer of hope, but the Bruins failed to complete the comeback.
This left Cassidy with mixed emotions.
“We weren’t ready,” he said. “We weren’t on time and for a team that was playing three and four nights, it didn’t look like it until the third period until we started pressing them. So, shame on us for not getting going earlier. It may have cost us a point in hindsight. But at the end of the day, I do like the fact that we did get to our game eventually and we could build off something.”
— Torey Krug exited the game ahead of overtime with an upper-body injury, according to Cassidy. But it’s not entirely clear why.
Cassidy didn’t have much of an update after the game, either.
“Listen, I just got the message, ‘Torey’s gone. May or may not come back.’ And that’s it, right?” he said. “So, you move on, and we’ll get a better idea tomorrow.”
— On the plus side, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak remain among the league’s elite.
Pastrnak currently leads the league in goals (15) and points (30). Marchand (29) is just one point behind his linemate for the most points in the league.
Thanks to his game-tying goal in the third period, Marchand became the 11th player in franchise history with a home point streak of at least nine games, per NHL Public Relations. He’s the first to do so since Keith Crowder in the 1986-87 season.
