Offense comes from all over as Bruins pound Flyers

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 10, 2026

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — One major concern that Bruins management and coaching staffs harbored coming into the season was how the team would be able to manage the first six games of the season with No. 1 defenseman Charlie McAvoy.

Not to worry.

After the B’s dispatched a lifeless Philadelphia Flyers team with a methodical 5-1 win on Saturday at TD Garden with five different goalscorers, they took eight of a possible 12 standings points in the first half-dozen games. The B’s now have 14 different goalscorers on the season.

Now coach Marco Sturm has two days to figure out which defenseman to take out of the lineup to make room before a hard West Coast trip, and it’s not an easy decision . Not a single blueliner has volunteered for press box duty with his play.

“Going into the season, it was a tough schedule, tough teams I thought. And without Charlie McAvoy. So it was not easy to come out like this, 4-2, and we’re very happy,” Sturm said. “It doesn’t mean we can relax now because Charlie’s back. We also know how tough this road trip will be, so we feel good going into the trip and going on the plane with two wins.”

Saturday’s win was the B’s second comfortable victory in as many games, but unlike the win over Utah on Thursday, they didn’t need to rely on Jeremy Swayman. They outshot the Flyers 32-15, allowing just eight shots through two periods.

On the surface, one could have expected a desperate Flyers team. A playoff team a year ago believed to be on the upswing, they were winless (0-3-2) coming into the game. But they were a wounded bunch. Travis Konecny, Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen were all out.

The B’s took it to Philly for the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Flyers 12-3, and only some good work by old friend Daniel Vladar kept it from getting away form the visitors.

The top line of David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie was particularly dominant, and that trio gave the B’s a 1-0 lead at 12:21.

Zacha did a good job of keeping the puck in at the blue line, poking it to Pastrnak. The captain in turn dropped it back for Zacha, whose shot from the high slot broke through Vladar’s blocker arm and trickled into the net. Vladar had saved tougher chances. After his linemates had broken through with their first goals in Thursday night’s blowout victory, Zacha now had his first of the season.

That, however, was all the B’s could muster in the first period. They still had work to do. But much like their win over the Rangers in the season opener, they showed patience and made good decisions.

“Sometimes that’s a dangerous time when we’re actually way better than the other team but it’s still a 1-0 game,” Sturm said. “That was our approach after the first period. We just made sure to stick with it.”

Early in the second period, the B’s huffed and puffed but could not get the second goal. They got their first power play at 6:55 when Noel Acciari held Pastrnak’s stick, but the PP looked a lot more like the first four games of the season and not Thursday’s version. In short, it was discombobulated. The Flyers killed it and then showed some semblance of a heartbeat, finally spending a little bit of time in the Boston zone.

The B’s were in desperate need of some breathing space and they finally got it at 17:12. They broke out on a 3-on-2 and Fraser Minten fed JJ Peterka at the blue line on the left wing. Peterka spotted Mason Lohrei joining the rush in the middle, making it a 4-on-2. He dished it to the defenseman, who traveled down the slot and then beat Vladar over the blocker for a 2-0 lead. For Lohrei, battling to stay in the lineup, it was his second goal in as many games.

The B’s then put a hammerlock on the game, making it 3-0 at 1:55 of the third on a nice cycling play. The puck found Minten behind the net and he found an open Marat Khusnutdinov in the slot for the Russian’s first goal of the season.

The Flyers finally got on the board at 6:32 of the third on the power play. With Will Borgen in the box for tripping, Porter Martone — the young man taken just before James Hagens in the 2025 draft — beat Swayman just under the bar to spoil the shutout bid.

But the B’s got it back quickly on a pretty play. Hagens collected his own rebound out high and made a nice diagonal pass down low to Elias Lindholm, who in turn fed Casey Mittelstadt for the tap-in.

Minten then made it a three-point day (1-2-3) with a late goal off the rush, and it was time to think about the very difficult West Coast road trip ahead.