It was last year, of course, when the Flyers became the third team in NHL history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit as they made an epic comeback, which included a 4-3, Game 7 win after they trailed, 3-0.
Game 4 will be at TD Garden on Friday night.
Towering defenseman Zdeno Chara scored a pair of goals - one on a late five-on-three power play - to pace the Bruins.
The Flyers vowed to play Wednesday like it was an elimination game.
Didn't happen.
Boston scored two quick goals and was much more physical than the Flyers from the start, preventing the visitors from getting into an early rhythm.
"We talked about weathering the storm. Coming into their building, we knew they would come out strong, and [in hindsight] that was the game right there," Flyers center Danny Briere said about the Bruins' early onslaught. "We didn't do a good job in the first minute of play of keeping them to the outside. Too many breakdowns. We tried after that, but it's tough to spot them two goals.
"For some reason, we were flat in the first minute."
Tim Thomas made 37 saves for Boston; he has stopped 83 of the last 84 shots in the last two games.
"I don't think we got a lot of traffic on Thomas," said Jeff Carter, who returned from a knee injury and played for the first time since April 20. "We had 40 shots or whatever, but there weren't really many quality chances."
The Flyers are 6-1 when facing elimination in the last two playoff seasons.
The second-seeded Flyers hoped Carter's return would bolster their lineup. Instead, they fell into a 3-0 series hole that seemed unfathomable when the rematch started.
Boston, Team Payback, is now 6-0-1 against the Flyers since its meltdown in last year's playoffs.
Do the Flyers draw hope from overcoming a 3-0 series deficit against Boston last season?
