{"id":478170,"date":"2026-03-01T03:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/478170\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:27:17","slug":"bruins-geekie-cant-solve-dan-vladar-breaking-apart-bruins-loss-to-flyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/478170\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins, Geekie Can\u2019t Solve Dan Vladar: Breaking Apart Bruins\u2019 Loss to Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bruins<\/a> expected a hard, physical game Saturday, but a familiar face in net stood in their way.<\/p>\n

The Boston Bruins<\/a> (33-21-5) snapped an eight-game point streak in Philadelphia on Saturday<\/a>. They could not solve former Bruin Dan Vladar<\/a> and lost 3-1 to the Flyers<\/a> (27-21-11). Charlie McAvoy extended his point streak to nine games, but staying out of the net-front prevented them from beating the Flyers\u2019 goalie.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the game<\/a>, Marco Sturm knew what was coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philly guys don\u2019t like the Boston guys, let\u2019s put it that way. They don\u2019t like the Bruins. It\u2019s always a physical game, it\u2019s always a good game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight minutes into the first period, Tanner Jeannot<\/a> and Nic Deslauriers<\/a> met at center ice for a spirited bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH: Tanner Jeannot vs. Nic Deslauriers<\/a><\/p>\n

After the first period, the Flyers had laid 10 hits, and the Bruins had 4. The Flyers finished with 29 to the Bruins\u2019 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was no scoring for the first 40 minutes of the hockey game, but both goaltenders put on a show<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought [Swayman] was outstanding today,\u201d said Marco Sturm about his starting goaltender<\/a>. \u201cEnd of the day, we couldn\u2019t find a way to score today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swayman made 14 saves on the 16 shots he faced \u2013 not many \u2013 but he displayed highlight-reel stops throughout the game<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A bad bounce landed on Christian Dvorak\u2019s<\/a> stick. He found Travis Konecny<\/a> for the Flyers\u2019 first tally<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Swayman said after the game<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s hockey, and yeah, you want to focus on the next shot, which we did. And I thought that we responded really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHit a stanchion and then as soon as I went to swipe it, it popped over my stick. It\u2019s one of those things; it happens in hockey all the time. Not the right game to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Flyers\u2019 second goal<\/a>, Jamie Drysdale had time and space in the slot. Morgan Geekie took the blame for that one after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other end of the ice, Dan Vladar, whom the Bruins drafted in 2015, made 26 saves on the 27 he faced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only player to get by Vladar was Charlie McAvoy<\/a> \u2013 the two were roommates when they played together for the Providence Bruins. His goal<\/a>, like all four from the game, happened in the third period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Vladdy had a great game,\u201d McAvoy said about his old roommate<\/a>. \u201cSometimes you see that when you go play against your old team, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

One player who could not solve Vladar was the Bruins\u2019 leading goal scorer, Morgan Geekie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those nights, their goalie played well,\u201d Geekie said. \u201cCouldn\u2019t quite put it in the spot that I wanted to; it felt like a couple times. And Dave (Pastrnak) made a couple great plays. So, just one of those nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geekie finished with five shots on goal and also attempted four more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Morgan<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of NaturalStatTrick<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bruins scored to start the third period, but the referees immediately waved it off. Mikey Eyssimont tried to get in front of Vladar, but incidental contact from Travis Sanheim<\/a> bumped him into the Flyers\u2019 goalie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eyssimont and Sturm did not see eye to eye on that, which is why Sturm did not challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to take the shortcut to the paint,\u201d Eyssimont said when asked about the play. \u201cI got pushed into the goalie by their d-man. I was out of the way before the shot was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMikey went through the paint and touched the goalie by his own,\u201d Sturm said on why he did not challenge. \u201cSo he didn\u2019t really get pushed in. And they called a no-goal, so you got to think about that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Eyssimont\u2019s contact with Vladar, the Bruins were not getting to the net-front areas. Playing close to the goal has favored the Bruins this season, but not doing it is a part of the reason they could not score on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we had to get to him, get to the paint like that,\u201d Eyssimont said after the game. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t do enough of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, Eyssimont and Sturm agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have that mentality too,\u201d Sturm added. \u201cTo go to the net hard, to the tough areas. We played on the outside way too much, and unfortunately, it cost us a point or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday marks the Bruins\u2019 first regulation loss since January 20 in Dallas<\/a>. And with 23 games remaining on the schedule, the playoff push is on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough when you lose these ones, especially when they are important in the East,\u201d Geekie said after the game. \u201cIt feels like every game is do or die. So, I think it hurts a little more. But, like I said, we play a lot of games in March, and it\u2019s going to go by pretty quick so just try and get back on the horse on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins will have Sunday off; they return to practice on Monday morning. On Tuesday night, the Bruins will play the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> (30-15-13) at the TD Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bruins expected a hard, physical game Saturday, but a familiar face in net stood in their way.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,6878,58,5,11126,4261,4,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-478170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-bruins","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-bostonbruins","11":"tag-bruins","12":"tag-dan-vladar","13":"tag-featured","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-mikey-eyssimont","16":"tag-morgan-geekie","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-philadelphia-flyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116151796271049612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}