Flyers Work ‘tails Off' for Nothing But Pain

BOX SCORE

BOSTON - This loss has to feel like Wayne Simmonds' mouth.

Painful, frustrating, while still trying to find ways to stop the bleeding.

Flyers killer Brad Marchand scored the game-winning goal Thursday with 22 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Bruins a 3-2 win, sinking the Flyers to their fifth straight loss (see observations). They're now 0-4-1 during this current stretch after six straight wins.

"It's disappointing, it's frustrating," defenseman Ivan Provorov said. "We played real hard and battled for 60 minutes and came out short. It's just one of those games you've got to put in the back of your mind and move on."

Unlike the game against Pittsburgh, the Flyers exerted a more complete 60-minute effort, outshot the opposition, 33-27, and minimized the turnovers that proved to be costly just a night before.

"Our guys worked their tails off today from start to finish," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "It's hard when you have nothing to show for it at the end of the night." 

The final shift may have proven how fatigued the Flyers were playing on back-to-back nights. With their top defensive line and pairing on the ice, the Flyers simply couldn't contain Marchand and David Pastrnak, who crashed the net without much denial from the Flyers following Zdeno Chara's shot from the blue line. 

"You're going to deal with some fatigue on the second night of a back-to-back. We dealt with a little bit of that," Hakstol said. "We played a pretty simple road game. Sometimes you get stripped down to your core on the back-to-backs. That was the case tonight."

Making his first start since the Flyers' acquisition of Petr Mrazek, backup goaltender Alex Lyon played for the first time since Feb. 20. Lyon turned in another solid effort by exhibiting excellent rebound control for most of the game until the Chara blast proved to be a little tough to handle (see highlights).

"It took a funny bounce and I think Pastrnak got his stick on it before it got to me. He swiped at it once and swiped at it twice," Lyon said. "Obviously, you want to find a way to make that save.

"Maybe there were a little bit of nerves at the start, and maybe I had to make myself believe that I belonged here again."

Lyon wouldn't recall the game, but Thursday's setback was reminiscent of a similar loss to the Bruins nearly three years ago to the day when Marchand scored a game-tying power-play goal with 15 seconds in regulation, and then capped the comeback with an overtime winner. While that game zapped the Flyers' postseason aspirations, Hakstol feels the signs are pointing towards something positive.

"We took a big step in the right direction," Hakstol said. "We dug down and played a pretty simple road game. This is our best 60 minutes in the last five games."

As for Simmonds, the Flyers' power forward took another high stick, this time just 89 seconds into the game, which ruptured the sutures from the previous dental work he had done. 

Right now, everyone could use a dose of novocaine to numb the pain, and especially Simmonds.