Czech Mate: Boston Bruins Roll by Flyers on Monday Afternoon

34-5-4.

As the Boston Bruins wagon rolled on this afternoon, they applauded David Krejci for reaching the 1,000-game milestone in a contest against the Philadelphia Flyers. Krejci became the seventh player in team history to play 1,000 games, and he didn’t disappoint with three assists in a convincing 6-0 beatdown of the Flyers at TD Garden.

The scoring started just 4:38 into the game when David Pastrnak got his 34th goal of the season, with Czech mates Krejci and Pavel Zacha assisting. Zacha then took his turn, firing a rocket of a one-timer that caused him to fall over, making it 2-0 nonetheless.

Brad Marchand took a loose puck in front of the net early in the second period and buried a backhander, giving the Bruins a 3-0 lead. A fitting 46 seconds later, Zacha was credited with a bouncing goal to make the lead 4-0, chasing Carter Hart from the game and, as they say in chess, Czech Mate.

With a power play to open the third period, Pastrnak did his usual Pastrnak thing, scoring on his wicked one-timer to make the score 5-0 just 36 seconds into the period.

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Later in the period, Matt Grzelcyk decided that Pasta’s goal looked pretty sweet, so he did his own version of the one-timer from the other circle, making it 6-0 and putting the bow on another win.

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It was a banner night for the 18-46-88 line, the Czech trio, with Pastrnak and Zacha finishing with two goals and an assist, while Krejci had a trio of assists. Fittingly, the area of glass that came loose in the playoffs a while back came loose (again) in this game, hitting Krejci.

Other multi-point scorers for the Bruins were Marchand and Grzelcyk, each recording a goal and an assist. Charlie McAvoy had a two-assist game, while Patrice Bergeron and Hampus Lindholm each had an assist.

The aforementioned Hart was the starting netminder for the Flyers, getting chased from the game after allowing four goals on 16 shots. Samuel Ersson came on in relief and allowed a pair of goals on 13 shots, although Hart was credited with the loss.

There was no such goalie problem for the Bruins since Jeremy Swayman had a fantastic game, stopping all 29 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season. Interestingly, today marked his first shutout since February 2022 against the Los Angeles Kings.

Boston heads to Long Island for a Monday matchup with the New York Islanders as they go for three wins in a row. Circle your calendars for February 20, when Krejci gets a pregame ceremony for 1,000 games played before the puck drops against the Ottawa Senators.