Problems with their flight from Columbus Wednesday night meant the Flyers didn’t get to bed in Boston until after 4 o’clock Thursday morning.

Then they went out and played like it.

Down three goals after two periods, it was time for the Flyers to head for the airport. A final score of 6-3 at TD Garden Thursday night could have been a lot worse.

It was another tough night for goaltender Sam Ersson. He was under siege often, but at least two of the goals were ones he’d like to have back. Ersson appeared to suffer an injury to his midsection near the end of the second period. He left the game and was replaced by Dan Vladar.

Officially, the injury was listed as lower body.

This season, the Flyers are 2-5-1 in the second half of back-to-backs and 2-8-1 in their last 11 overall. The Bruins are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games.

Captain Sean Couturier was demoted to fourth line and only played 13 minutes.

“I think we’re disconnected at times,” Couturier said. “The management of the game might not be the best right now. We have a lot of skill to make plays so we have to find a way to work together and outcompete the other team consistently.”

The Flyers have three home games left to get it right before the Olympic break. The task looks daunting.

“You can’t have one or two shifts off,” Couturier said. “Right now we’re just trying to find a way to get back on track. No one is going to feel sorry for us, so it’s on us to get going, be better, find ways to get wins at this point in the year. We have to get back to the basics here and focus on ourselves.”

Coach Rick Tocchet said effort wasn’t the problem in this game. Just too many mental lapses.

“There was a lot of effort tonight, got to give the guys credit,” Tocchet said. “But too many mistakes that go in our net though.”

The coach had no update on Ersson, but it was serious enough to make him use Vladar, who returned from injured reserve Wednesday night and whom Tocchet did not want to use if he could’ve avoided it.

The Flyers fell behind 3-0 at 2:27 of the period when Ersson gave up a soft goal to Fraser Minten. Travis Konecny quickly answered for the Flyers at 3:16, finishing off some strong work from Christian Dvorak and Nikita Grebenkin in the corner with a shot past goaltender Jeremy Swayman to cut the deficit to 3-1.

It was Konecny’s fourth goal in two games. At that point, the Flyers appeared to be in position to keep it close. The score stayed that way until Casey Mittelstadt scored for the Bruins at 16:12. Minten was instrumental in this play as well.

Boston made it 5-1 with 1:20 left in the second period when Tanner Jeannot had a long shot tip off him into the net.

The Flyers got one back moments later. Grebenkin skated hard to cash in on some loose change after Konecny was stopped on a break-in at 19:03.

It was another slow start for the Flyers, who found themselves behind by a 2-0 score after the first period. Viktor Arvidsson’s shot from the lower edge of the right circle beat Ersson five-hole at 9:49. Then just 31 seconds later the Bruins connected again, Pavel Zacha finishing off a play started by Morgan Geekie.

The Flyers thought they had a goal by Dvorak after falling behind by that two-goal margin in the first period. The play occurred at 12:05. Boston challenged after replays showed Grebenkin’s stick interfered with Swayman prior to Dvorak’s shot. Officials ruled no goal.

Matvei Michkov scored a power-play goal with under two minutes to play.

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NOTES >> Rasmus Ristolainen returned to the lineup after leaving Wednesday night’s game at Columbus just two shifts in. … Owen Tippett played in his 400th NHL game. … The Flyers return home for a Saturday afternoon game against the Los Angeles Kings. … Konecny’s hat trick in the 5-3 loss at Columbus on Wednesday night was his 12th multi-point game of the season. That became 13 on Thursday night. He’s tops on the Flyers in that category, with Trevor Zegras second at 11. … Zegras returned to the center position with Bobby Brink and Michkov on the wings. … The Flyers’ power play has once again dropped to 32nd and last in the NHL. … Defenseman Emil Andrae was a scratch for the Flyers. Noah Juulsen took his spot. … The Flyers have been scored upon first in 35 of 53 games this season.