Instant reactions: Nikita Grebenkin’s effort goes to waste in blowout loss to Bruins

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Ten days ago the Philadelphia Flyers needed to stop the bleeding, and got standout performances from Travis Konecny and Sam Ersson in a 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights to end a seven-game losing streak.

The boost was short-lived, as their successful 2-0-1 road trip has been followed up with a pair of uninspiring losses, getting shutout by Ilya Sorokin and the Islanders, and having their hearts broken late in a 4-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night, despite TK’s hat trick and some clutch, highlight saves from Dan Vladar in the second half of the game.

On Thursday, the Flyers needed a similar slump-busting win in Boston against the Bruins. With Konecny and Rasmus Ristolainen in the lineup despite being game-time decisions, it felt like the Orange & Black were poised to gut-out a tough back-to-back battle with the streaking B’s, who’ve gone 11-2-1 since December 31st.

Unfortunately, Ersson gave up five goal on 20 shots before leaving after the second period with an injury, and nobody but the Nikita Grebenkin – Christian Dvorak – TK line showed up. The result? The Flyers got run out of Boston for their third straight regulation loss, all to Eastern Conference opponents, and their 10th loss in the last 12 games.

I’d say that will just about do it for this team’s playoff hopes.

First period

Highlight: The Flyers allowed the first goal for the 35th time through 53 games, and then fell behind 2-0 about 40 seconds later. But it looked like Dvorak had drawn the FlyGuys within one when he followed up Nikita Grebenkin’s drive to the net with a rebound goal, but upon further review, Grebenkin’s stick got stuck in Jeremy Swayman’s pads on the initial attempt, and as Grebenkin attempted to clear the area, he pulled the goaltender’s leg enough for the officials to decide the goal shouldn’t count. I don’t know, you tell me. Once I saw the replay I figured it would be overturned, but should incidental contact like THAT really take a goal off the board. Ugh. The Flyers have certainly dug themselves into this hole since the win over the Anaheim Ducks to close out the first half of the season, but they’re certainly not getting any help.

What I want to see next period: Please. I know it’s a back-to-back. And apparently the Flyers’ flight from Columbus was delayed and didn’t get into Boston until 4 this morning. But there has to be more energy, more urgency, more STUFF HAPPENING. Shots were 10-9 for the Bruins in the first, and attempts were 19-14, so it’s not like Philly got killed, but it felt like the Bruins had the puck for two-thirds of the period. Outside of one shift for Sean Couturier’s fourth line with Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers, I didn’t notice a single Flyer outside of the Dvorak, Grebenkin and TK line, who had their goal overturned and also made a bad coverage mistake on Boston’s second goal. The Flyers will start the pweriod with 31 seconds of power play time and expecting a goal would be insane, but maybe use the early part of the middle frame to get some momentum. SOMETHING!

Second period

Highlight: Konecny continues his torrid scoring pace, netting his 21st of the season, and his fourth straight Flyers goal, to make it 3-1. Grebenkin is playing one hell of a game, and deserves a lot of credit for this goal, taking the puck over the blue line, shooting in on Swayman, and following his rebound into the corner and laying a hit to loosen it up, and eventually Dvorak and some heavy traffic along the boards, sprung the puck into the slot for TK who beat Swayman to cut Boston’s lead to two. As of now the goal is unassisted, but it was the battling by Grebenkin and Dvorak that made it happen. Unfortunately, some defensive zone blunders in the final four minutes allowed Casey Mittelstadt to make it 4-1 despite an awesome initial save (his second or third of the period) by Ersson.

What I want to see next period: If there are a bunch of fights, and I mean Flyers-Senators 419 PIMs, that’s cool. Otherwise, I just want this game to end. Get the hell out of there. Philly hasn’t even been terrible tonight, but more bad turnovers, some less-than-ideal goaltending and the inability for anybody other than TK to score a freakin’ goal have made the next 20 minutes pointless. Run the clock, call off every icing, 11:30 beer league officiating would be dope.

Oh hey that’s cool, Grebenkin scored with 55 seconds left in the period. He’s earned a tally tonight. And with that, he becomes the first Flyer other than Konecny to score a goal since Matvei Michkov’s empty-net goal with 3:07 left in the third period in Colorado. That’s 162:12 of game time, if my math is correct (which is 50/50).

Third period

Highlight: Through 50 minutes of the game, Nikita Grebenkin, the Flyers’ best player tonight, had played 10:01, the least ice time of any Philadelphia forward. That’s hard to fathom.

Final note: The Flyers have lost 11 straight games against Eastern Conference opponents (0-9-2) and 13 of 14 vs. their conference rivals (1-9-4). Oh, and Matvei Michkov scored a garbage time power play goal in the final two minutes to make it 6-3. Cool.

Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame