Flyers-Bruins takeaways: Felix Sandström is left out to dry, John Tortorella steers clear of moral victories, and more

BOSTON — The Flyers are living on the edge these days. But can they stop themselves from falling?

Before puck drop against the Boston Bruins, John Tortorella said he wanted to look forward. Fair, as the team was coming off a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. For the most part, they looked like a team that had put that game in the rearview mirror — until it was a bit of a rinse-and-repeat in the third period.

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Time is ticking on the season, and while Tortorella said his squad can’t be too concerned about other teams, the Flyers hit the ice just three points ahead of the New York Islanders, who lost in overtime to the Ottawa Senators by midafternoon. Philly wasn’t able to widen the gap, losing 6-5 to the Bruins. It was a game that saw the Flyers take a one-goal lead in twice, fall behind by three and, as has been customary all season, almost come back.

“[Stinks],” Joel Farabee said. “We can say we like the effort and we competed and things like that, but at the end of the day, we need the two points. Personally, I like the effort but just definitely [stinks].”

Here are three takeaways.

Felix Sandström may have allowed six goals — and he agreed that he wanted to come up with a save on the final one — but the Flyers netminder stated his case to be the backup for the remainder of the season.

“Our [goalies] all year have been really good for us,” Joel Farabee said, referencing Sandström and Sam Ersson. “They’ve kept us in games. They’re the reason why we’re still in the hunt here. It’s a shame we didn’t help him out tonight. But they keep playing like that, where they give us a chance to win every night.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, Sandström faced nine high-danger chances across his 30 shots. He allowed three goals but one of them, the 4-2 goal by Johnny Beecher, came after the Flyers goalie made a spectacular paddle save on the Bruins forward in the slot.

Sandström had stopped Beecher in the first period as he slid across from his right to his left. He made a similar save, going from his left to his right to stop Matt Grzelcyk early in the second period before stoning Jake DeBrusk off a faceoff win; like Beecher, DeBrusk would score later in the game, too.

As Farabee said, “We kind of left him out to dry a bit.”

But probably his flashiest save was on Morgan Geekie, who tried a one-handed poke on a pass as he crashed the net down the middle. Sandström then robbed Danton Heinen. Geekie and Heinen did score in the game.

Although Tortorella didn’t want to grade the goalie postgame, it’s fair to say the score could have been more lopsided considering the type of shots the Bruins, one of the top 10 teams in the NHL in goals, put on net.

“Yeah, it’s definitely too bad for him,” Sean Couturier said. “We were kind of a little looser and not as sharp defensively, I should say so. Makes it harder on our goalie, that’s for sure.”

As Farabee said, the Flyers just shot themselves in the foot. For the second straight game, the Flyers struggled out of the gate in the third period. Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was two quick strikes before the frame hit the five-minute mark. Saturday it was three tallies by the Bruins.

“We self-inflict sometimes. We’re just not deep enough right now. We can’t have [Travis Sanhiem] or [Cam York] in the penalty box for any time during the game, how thin we are in our back end,” Tortorella said about his defense. “We were really concerned about the four-on-four at the beginning of that period, just not having Yorkie.

“I thought we had a lot of good minutes. I thought we had patience to our game. We just couldn’t sustain it for the full 60.”

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Charlie Coyle scored his second of the game with York and DeBrusk in their respective penalty boxes for roughing to give the Bruins their first lead of the game. The score had been 2-2 before the final 20 minutes started but Coyle, Beecher, and DeBrusk scored in a 3-minute, 58-second span to make it 5-2 and put the Flyers on their heels.

“I don’t know if I can pinpoint it,” Morgan Frost said when asked about the slow starts in third period lately. “I think maybe a couple of breakdowns, and it kind of is what it is. But we’ve got to figure it out. I think we keep putting ourselves in a good position and just got to find that break late in the game to kind of seal it. I’m going to keep saying it, I thought we played a pretty good game. So it’s a tough one to swallow.”

Although the Flyers charged back and almost, once again, completed a comeback against the newly minted No. 1 team in the NHL — the Bruins jumped the Florida Panthers for the top spot — Tortorella wanted everyone to tread lightly.

“We’ve got to be really careful with the moral victories here,” the bench boss said. “I appreciate how hard we worked and kept on playing. You’ve got to be really careful. We’ve got to find a way to get points. Certainly not enough guys going consistently.”

But the Flyers did score five goals by four guys against Jeremy Swayman. And each one was pretty nifty with one being downright spicy.

The opener of the game by Ryan Poehling may have looked like a simple one-timer off a pass from Garnet Hathaway on a two-on-one, but it was actually very well-crafted. As a lefty and skating down the right side, Poehling had to open himself up and fully face Hathaway to accept the pass, and that pass had to be placed perfectly. It showcased just how in tune they are, as Hathaway had to note that with Poehling being a left-handed shot the puck needed to be a little in front for him to turn into it to release quickly.

Farabee’s first goal of the night technically wasn’t a power-play goal, as it came three seconds after the man advantage expired, but it was a great example of practice makes perfect. Slotted into the net front on the first unit, Farabee has been working on his deflections in practice and it paid off on his 20th goal of the season as he deflected in a point shot by York. His second, which established a new career high and made it 6-5 late was a wraparound that he banked in off Swayman.

Nic Deslauriers returned to the lineup and not only started the comeback attempt, but with it scored his first of the season. His goal, which was started off by a big block by Cam Atkinson, who had also been a healthy scratch, and was finished with a clinic on why forechecking is so critical. Deslauriers and Couturier each put pressure on the Bruins defense in their zone, creating a giveaway by Andrew Peeke and allowing Deslauriers to score to make it 5-3.

Then came the spiciest goal of the season. Owen Tippett made a spectacular pass to Frost as he got behind the defense and Frost, who is know for his creativeness and finesse game, scored between his legs as he cut across the crease.

“I had a lot of speed [and] I thought the defenseman was kind of flat-footed and great play by Tip to recognize that and find me,” Frost said. “I do a lot of that stuff all the time in practice, just kind of messing around. Not always during the drills but just when we’re messing around after practice and stuff. So kind of just instinct to do that and luckily went in and [resulted in] a big time in the game.”