Rough Start Costs Bruins in Preseason Loss to Flyers

PHILADELPHIA - The Bruins dropped their penultimate preseason contest, 5-1, to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center. David Krejci had Boston's lone goal on a sharp-angle snipe in the third period and also dropped the gloves with Flyers rookie Nolan Patrick.
Here are some observations from the loss:

Rough Start

The Bruins appeared to have taken a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on an Anders Bjork tally, but the goal was disallowed after it was determined that Brad Marchand had used a hand pass to move the puck across the crease to the rookie winger.
Flyers forward Travis Konecny proceeded to open the scoring with a power-play goal at 13:12. The rough start continued just 59 seconds later. The Bruins thought Jake DeBrusk had tied the score, but had the goal overturned for goaltender interference after review.
"The league is cracking down on it," said DeBrusk, who played with David Krejci and David Pastrnak for much of the first two periods. "I thought I got pushed a little bit by their defenseman. It was completely accidental. It's unfortunate that they called it back.
"That's where you go to score goals," added DeBrusk. "Those are the goals that go in. I went to that area and got rewarded, but got turned back and it's unfortunate."

In total, the Bruins were shorthanded four times in the opening period and killed off three of them. Nonetheless, the penalties took their toll. Jakub Voracek's goal with just 10 seconds remaining in the first sent the Bruins to the dressing room down, 2-0.
"We weren't competitive enough," said Cassidy. "First period, we put ourselves in a tough spot, we took four penalties. It's tough to kill. You're playing against a good team on the road and then you get a couple disallowed goals. It just felt like we were chasing the game the whole night.
"If that's going to happen then you need the guys that are here pushing for jobs to give you energy to get you back in it, but that didn't happen either, at least not enough."

Rask Gets A Breather

The plan was for Tuukka Rask to play the entire 60 minutes, but once the Flyers opened up a 4-0 lead after two periods, Cassidy elected to have the B's starting netminder take it easy for the rest of the night.
"That was a discussion I had with our goalie coach [Bob Essensa] and Tuukka himself," said Cassidy. "When you're not playing that well and you're giving up shorthanded, tick-tack-toe goals, it might be time to say, 'Hey, you know what? We're just not there in front of the goaltender.'
"We don't want him to get into bad habits and get frustrated. He's not going in Saturday so we'll just get him some extra practice."
Despite starting just two games during the preseason, Rask feels ready to go for next week's opener against Nashville.
"We mapped it out before and talked about playing a couple Philly games and see how we feel. I felt good all along," said Rask. "It's been a good camp…long camp. I think it's time to put that behind. I know we've got one more game left, but focus on next Thursday."

Krejci Drops 'Em

There was plenty of emotion, even for a preseason game, during a scrap late in the second period. After Wayne Simmonds drilled Kenny Agostino from behind, a large scrum broke out in the Bruins end, involving several players on both teams.
After a short chat, Krejci and Nolan Patrick dropped the gloves - the second overall pick in this year's draft - with each landing a couple of jabs before calling it quits. Simmonds was given a minor penalty for interference and a 10-minute misconduct.
"You've kind of got to give him respect for his first year in the league," Krejci said of Patrick. "Good for him. But at the same time I thought he crossed the line a little bit. We fought and now it's over."
Krejci last fought during the 2011 preseason, when he sparred with New York Islanders forward Justin DiBenedetto.
"I pretty much don't expect it the whole season," said Krejci. "But you've got to take a preseason game just like the regular season, that's the best way to get ready and it just kind of happened. It's a man's sport. It is what it is."

Agostino Gets a Shot

Krejci later added his first goal of the preseason off a nice feed from Agostino just 48 seconds into the third. Agostino took the puck behind the net and found Krejci open at the bottom of the right circle, where Krejci ripped a slapshot over the left shoulder of goalie Alex Lyon to bring the Bruins to within 4-1.

"Great cycle by Pasta, [I] was able to skate right into it. Krech got into a nice little soft area and I was able to get it to him," said Agostino. "It was an unbelievable shot."
Agostino started the night on a line with Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Danton Heinen, but subbed in for DeBrusk alongside Krejci and Pastrnak in the third period.
"He's a skilled guy that really hasn't gotten much of a look up there," said Cassidy. "At some point we wanted to do that. He missed a couple days, he got injured…that plan went out the window. Today we moved him up. He did some good things there late.
"How much you can judge that? Obviously he'll get another chance on Saturday to see what he can do."