NHL Saturday night Match Analysis: Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers 6-0
Philadelphia could not have possibly foresaw what was about to happen to them and their seven-game winning streak as the Boston Bruins not only defeated them but shut them out by a huge, 6-0, difference on Saturday night, December 17, 2011, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Boston showed who is on top and why they were able to win the 2011 Stanley Cup championship with one of the best performances in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season so far.
The Bruins are now on a four-game winning streak which has tied them for the first place in the Eastern Conference with the Philadelphia Flyers with 43 points. Upcoming games for both teams will be extremely important as they wish to take over the top spot and increase the lead as the season progresses.
"We were obviously ready for this game and it showed (from) start to finish," Boston coach, Claude Julien, said. "This was probably just a tough night on their part. We got the early goal and it just seemed to snowball from there and eventually it becomes frustration. We know how good they are. We played well, and they had a tough night."
Boston started the match strong and did not delay a single moment that they could score on as Benoit Pouliot potted the first and his fifth of the season from a far away slap shot which went right through Ilya Bryzgalov, only 27 seconds into the opening period.
Bryzgalov had a tough time keeping Boston out of the net after he failed to save five of 20 shots that he faced before being ejected, 27 minutes into the contest.
Tim Thomas on the other hand, was focused and right on target for the Boston Bruins as the veteran goalie blocked all 31 shots on his net.
Daniel Paille added the second for Boston in the next two minutes, followed by Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic, both on power play advantages after both teams had rising tensions, resulting in a number of fights and incidents of players roughing each other up.
Seeing how his team performed in the opening period of the night, Philadelphia's head coach, Peter Laviolette, could tell his players were not themselves.
There were things that happened in the first eight minutes (of the game) that suggested that we were off," Laviolette said. "We weren't as sharp as we had been.”
With four straight in the first 20 minutes, Boston decided that they would take it slow in the remaining match by focusing on defense more than they would on offense.
Nathan Horton added another one for Boston, 7:06 into the second period as soon as he found an added man advantage to capitalise on with James van Riemsdyk being called for roughing in the first six minutes.
Horton was involved in a fighting incident with Philadelphia’s Zac Rinaldo, with less than four minutes remaining which sparked a number of other players getting heated up. Milan Lucic was also booked for a game misconduct and checking from behind with another major penalty.
Boston rookie, Tyler Seguin, potted his 14th goal of the regular season with eight minutes to go in the third and final period of regulation, which secured the match for the Bruins in all aspects.
It is not surprising to see that Boston is on a roll and have not quite had such a performance all season. The Bruins are hot and are likely to staying that way when they face off against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Philadelphia Flyers have the next five on the road starting off with the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: