Flyers handed a harsh reality check in 6-0 loss to the Bruins

BOSTON — Through effort and execution, the Flyers, who entered having won seven of their last eight games, have been able to add some solid wins to their resumé. But their 6-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday afternoon proved there’s a talent gap that hard work can’t overcome.

While it was their worst loss of the season, the Flyers did not play their worst hockey of the season. They worked hard, blocking shots, taking pucks away, and forechecking hard. But the Bruins’ skill was too much of an obstacle and magnified every mistake the Flyers made. Throughout the game, the Bruins skated faster, shot harder and more accurately, and skated circles around the Flyers, who simply looked overmatched against the NHL’s point leaders.

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Less than five minutes in, after Tony DeAngelo failed to clear the puck at the blue line, the Bruins capitalized via a backdoor pass to David Pastrňák that the Flyers couldn’t get back to defend. The Bruins made it 2-0 before the end of the opening period, as their flawless execution through the neutral zone set up Pavel Zacha for a missile of a one-timer that cleanly beat goalie Carter Hart.

“It’s a good start, and then when they popped a few on us, they kind of deflated us a little bit,” Travis Konecny said. “I didn’t think we responded terribly, but we just kind of let it get away from us. ... It was one of those nights you make a mistake and you’re going to pay.”

Forty-six seconds in the second period pushed the deficit from a manageable two goals to a four-goal beatdown. Almost directly after Brad Marchand scored in front of the net at the 3-minute, 55-second mark, the Bruins regained the puck in the neutral zone before Zacha’s intended pass deflected off a swarm of bodies and into the goal.

Pastrňák’s power-play goal to open the third period made it the Flyers’ worst deficit, five goals down, of the year. With momentum completely in the Bruins’ favor, Matt Grzelcyk then scored a sixth goal during a four-on-four at the 8:02 mark of the final frame.

The most positive thing about the game? It’s followed by another game on Tuesday, John Tortorella and his players said.

“That’s the nice thing,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “We’re going to flush this and get ready for tomorrow night’s game.”

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Tortorella wants his Flyers team to keep its opponents to the outside. That’s exactly what the Bruins did to Tortorella’s team on Monday.

While the Flyers had spells with the puck in the offensive zone, their shots were limited to the perimeter. The quality of their shots was reflected in their final goal tally: zero. On top of low-danger initial shots, they weren’t able to create many rebounds, nor were they in a position to pounce on their limited second-chance opportunities.

On the other end of the ice, the Bruins repeatedly breached the Flyers defense and took most of their shots around the net. Three of their four goals were scored by their efforts in front of the net, including one when 5-foot-9, 181-pound Marchand outmuscled 6-1, 215-pound Ivan Provorov for a loose puck and scored.

After four straight goals by the Bruins, Samuel Ersson replaced Hart in net during the second period.

Before being pulled, Hart did not have much help from his teammates. The Bruins were consistently creating high-danger scoring chances and Hart’s teammates were getting beaten to pucks and outmuscled for position in front of the net.

The Flyers goaltender was pulled after 12 saves on 16 shots, but none of the goals Hart let in were necessarily soft goals or bad reads by him.

When Ersson came in, he stopped all the Bruins’ chances through the rest of the second despite some dangerous opportunities. However, less than a minute into the third, he let up a power-play goal on the Bruins’ four-on-three and then another during a four-on-four. Like Hart, it would be hard to fault Ersson on any of the goals.

Meanwhile, Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman (29 saves) dealt the Flyers their third shutout of the season.

“I thought [our goalies] gave us a chance and we don’t score one,” Scott Laughton said. “So that’s the game.”

The Flyers drew two penalties before they had to sit in the box, but the power-play units that went out there looked very different from the ones that have shown recent improvement.

The same unit that opened the scoring in Saturday’s win over the Washington Capitals could barely get the puck across the blue line on the opening power play. The Bruins cleared it four times before the Flyers changed units and finally set up in the offensive zone. They had no shots on goal in those two minutes.

Later in the period while on a four-on-four, Morgan Frost was called for hooking, setting the Bruins up to open the third period with a four-on-three advantage. The Flyers’ penalty kill had only conceded one goal in the last six games and 16 power plays faced, but 36 seconds in, the Bruins capitalized with a one-timer from Pastrňák.

Even with a minute and 30 seconds of a five-on-three followed by over two minutes of a five-on-four advantage in the third period, the Flyers failed to score and break up the shutout.

The Flyers return home to play the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday at 7 p.m.