Bruins Notes: Slow Second Period Costly In 3-1 Loss To Flyers

The Boston Bruins lost a second consecutive preseason encounter to the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-1 defeat from Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.

Boston had played well through the first 20 minutes and entered the second period with a 1-0 lead. From there, the Flyers benefited from multiple bad bounces to quickly shift the momentum and the score.

Just 70 seconds into the second period, Cam Atkinson flicked a shot in front of the net off of Jeremy Swayman’s right pad to even the score. The Flyers utilized another advantageous bounce just 58 seconds later when Travis Konecny snuck a shot under Swayman to gain the lead. Philadelphia added a third goal later in the period off the stick of Joel Farabee.

A lack of energy allowed Philadelphia to change the pace of Monday’s contest in a second straight victory over Boston.

“In the second period, I don’t know why we came out so flat,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told Andy Brickley, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We started taking a lot of penalties. Turning pucks over, not skating and ended up in our own end a lot.”

Despite taking five penalties, Swayman and the Bruins’ penalty-kill unit negated each one.

“On the PK, I thought Sway did an excellent job,” Montgomery explained. “If it wasn’t for him, a couple would have been jacked in our net.”

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

— Swayman made multiple quality saves in the first period and finished the night with 21 saves on 24 shots.

“I need to do my job, just like the guys in front of me do,” Swayman told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “You just need to stay in the moment. It was good to get that early on. In the second period, I wanted to keep that going and obviously didn’t. Some stuff to work on and I know what I need to do moving forward.”

— Morgan Geekie scored the lone goal of the night in the first period as Charlie Coyle found the former Seattle Kraken center for a power play score.

Geekie got it ✔️ pic.twitter.com/Ge2FXuTyMP

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 2, 2023

“I’m just lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time,” Geekie told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I saw him start turning and a player of that caliber can make that play. I just tried to get in the right spot.”

— Philadelphia outshot Boston 24-14 on the night.

— In his preseason debut, Coyle posted a minus-1 rating with an assist in just over 17 minutes on the ice.

— The Bruins return to action on Tuesday night with another preseason matchup against the Washington Capitals. Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET. You can catch the game on NESN.