The Flyers will have to stew over a blowout loss and five-game losing streak during the extended break.
They'll hope it's a timely and an effective reset.
John Tortorella's team was rolled by the Bruins, 6-2, Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center.
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Tyson Foerster scored both goals for the Flyers (25-19-6). Olle Lycksell had an assist and was a plus-2.
The five-game skid is the Flyers' longest of the season. The club has been outscored 27-12 in the five defeats.
In four of the five losses, the Flyers fell behind 3-0. It's almost impossible to win by doing that. The only game the Flyers didn't find themselves in a hole, they blew a 3-1 lead to the Senators at home.
Two of the five losses came to the Lightning and Bruins (31-9-9) at home. The Flyers still have 10 games remaining against the Bruins, Panthers, Lightning and Maple Leafs, the top four teams in the Atlantic Division.
NHL
Before losing five straight, the Flyers had won five in a row to match their season-best win streak.
"I like our team," Tortorella said. "Two weeks ago, when we played Dallas, it was probably the best game I've seen a team play under me in a number of years. We've lost ourselves a little bit here. I think we've lost confidence offensively, although I thought we generated some offense today.
"It's how the league works sometimes — you have some good weeks and you have some struggles. We're having some struggles now. We've just got to try to put our head down, see if we can solve some problems and get better."
The Flyers now have nine days without a game, a stretch that includes the NHL All-Star break. Travis Konecny will represent the Flyers at the festivities Feb. 1-3 in Toronto.
"We're reminding ourselves every day that we've put ourselves in a great spot as of where we are right now in the season, what we've done as far as in the standings," Konecny said. "No one believed in us, that we'd be here. Maybe it's a good time for a break — regroup, get some energy, enjoy some time with your family and friends and get back here."
• Samuel Ersson was pulled after surrendering four first-period goals on 14 shots.
The four goals came in a hurry, all in the final six minutes of the opening frame.
"Don't put this on Sam," Tortorella said. "Don't put it on Sam."
Can he be better?
"I believe everybody can be better," Tortorella said.
The 24-year-old has played a lot of late. Saturday marked his fourth straight start and sixth consecutive appearance.
As we noted, the Flyers are facing adversity and decisions in net.
Cal Petersen took over for Ersson at the start of the second period. He made 12 saves on 14 shots in relief.
Boston netminder Linus Ullmark stopped 35 of the Flyers' 37 shots.
• Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale and Joel Farabee all finished with minus-4 ratings.
Those have been some of the Flyers' most important and relied upon players.
"Obviously I need the reset just as much as probably anyone in here," Sanheim said. "I need to get back to my game and the way that I was playing earlier in the year — being assertive, being aggressive, controlling the play, making the right decisions, being hard to play against and playing against top lines. Right now, I'm not doing that."
The Flyers, a team that prides itself on blocking shots, had only 10.
David Pastrnak, an absolute Flyers killer, put up two goals and an assist.
• Prior to the game, Mark Recchi was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame.
The Hockey Hall of Famer had an illustrious, 1,652-game career. A prolific scoring winger, Recchi played more games for the Flyers (602) than he did for any other team. He finished his career in Boston, where he won his third and final Stanley Cup.
Recchi expressed his gratitude for Ed Snider, the Flyers' iconic founder who died in April 2016, and the fan base.
"Philadelphia fans are above and beyond everybody," he said in his speech. "They're passionate, they're fiery. You go through the dog days in January and February, and you guys are our sixth player on the ice. You guys mean that much to us. Keep that going. Never change, Flyer fans."
More: From the Cup to the Richards-Recchi connection, Flyers alumni game delivers
• As expected, Owen Tippett missed a fourth straight game with a lower-body injury. He's hoping to be back in the lineup when the Flyers return to game action Feb. 6.
"It's still kind of early, see how it develops," he said before Saturday's game, "but as of right now, that's my goal."
Tippett signed an eight-year, $49.6 million contract extension Friday. As a product of the Claude Giroux trade, the young winger faced some pressure when he arrived to Philadelphia from the Panthers. He has transformed into a goal-scoring power forward and a foundation piece for the Flyers.
"Ever since I came over, me and my family were really comfortable being in the city of Philadelphia," Tippett said. "With the fan base we have and you can see how exciting it is with what we have growing. ... This is where I want to be, this is home now."
The Flyers have missed him.
"He's an important guy. We miss him terribly," Tortorella said. "It doesn't put us into where we can't function without him. But he's such an important guy for us. It's so important with him where I can bounce him to different lines. He's a type of guy that can push offense himself without any help, so he's a very important guy for us."
In other lineup matters, Egor Zamula missed Saturday's game because of an illness.
• James van Riemsdyk was back in Philadelphia with the Bruins.
As the Flyers went through a rebuilding offseason last summer, the veteran winger signed a one-year, $1 million deal with Boston. He enjoyed a productive day against his old club, scoring the Bruins' fifth goal early in the second period, picking up an assist in the third and finishing as a plus-3.
• The Flyers return from the break with a matchup Feb. 6 against the Panthers in Sunrise, Florida (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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