GAME 68 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ BRUINS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (34-22-11) are in Beantown on Thursday to take on Bruce Cassidy's Boston Bruins (41-15-8) at TD Garden. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSNP+ locally and nationally on NHL Network.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season and the lone game in Boston. On December 2 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers' reached the nadir of their 10-game winless skid (0-5-5) as they got blanked, 3-0, by the Bruins in a game where Philly were both outplayed and undisciplined. The season series will conclude in Philadelphia on April 1. The Flyers enter this game at a crossroads. They can either dig deep, and find a way to get back on the winning track. Pittsburgh is idle and Washington faces a very tough road game of its own against the Anaheim Ducks. Alternatively, the Flyers can continue to slide back down toward the wildcard pack with no letup soon in a brutally tough schedule.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Thursday's game is the second half of a back-to-back and middle game of a home-road-home set of three games in four nights for the Flyers. The team was 10-1-2 in February but is winless so far in March (0-3-1).
On Wednesday, the Flyers had an opportunity to move into second place -- tied in points for the top spot but trailing via tiebreaker -- in the Metropolitan Division. Instead, a superior Pittsburgh Penguins team jumped into first place and opened a three point over the third-place Flyers with a 5-2 decision at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers actually outplayed the Penguins for the majority of the opening 30 minutes and briefly held a 2-1 lead, but there were a few too many key flaws and breakdowns that the Penguins capitalized upon to take control of the game. The Penguins took a 4-2 lead into the third period and then slammed the door after the Flyers were unable to convert an early period 3-on-1 rush that very well could have changed the entire complexion of the final 20 minutes.
One important part of the reason why the Flyers' lost to the Penguins is that the Philly power play, struggling to score over the previous five games, went utterly AWOL in Wednesday's game. If anything, Philly power plays were momentum crushers.
The Flyers have been hemorrhaging opposing team goals during their early-March struggles against a series of high-quality opponents. The club has yielded four, six, four and five regulation goals over the past four games.
One bright note from the Pittsburgh game, as well as numerous other recent games: the continued emergence of (soon-to-be) 21-year-old Travis Konecny and 19-year-old Nolan Patrick into NHL impact players.
Prior to the front end of the back-to-back set, Hakstol hinted that the goaltending chores might be split over the two games. If so, Alex Lyon will be in goal in Boston.
BRUINS OUTLOOK
Boston boasts a 23-7-4 record on home ice to date. Overall the team has won four in a row -- most recently a 6-5 home win on Tuesday over the Detroit Red Wings -- and seven of the last 10.
The Bruins are not officially locked into second place yet in the Atlantic Division but they are six points behind Tampa Bay (plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) and five points ahead of Toronto (plus an almost insurmountable 38-33 ROW edge in the tiebreaker). The standings order in unlikely to change.
The Bruins have some key injuries. Star two-way center Patrice Bergeron is at least a couple weeks away from returning from a foot fracture. Standout rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy is out for about four weeks with a knee (MCL) injury. In the meantime, Boston will be without David Backes for three games, as he serves an NHL suspension.
Goalie Tuukka Rask is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, missing the last two games. He has skated with the team this week, and will get the start against the Flyers. Boston right now has the luxury of moving ahead with caution, since their place in the standings is all-but a lock at this point and they won the last two without Rask, but he is apparently fine now.
Unfortunately for the rest of the NHL, the Bruins still have Brad Marchand in the lineup. Arguably the league's most despised figure among opposing players, the speedy and skilled Marchand has racked up 66 points (28 goals, 38 assists) in just 51 games while routinely getting the opposition off their game. A regular Flyer-killer, Marchand particularly got under Shayne Gostisbehere's skin in the first meeting of the season; first with a questionable-at-best hit and then luring Gostisbehere into taking a bad penalty that short-circuited a Philadelphia power play late in the second period.
Young forward David Pastrnak (23 goals, 61 points) is another Bruin who routinely finds a way onto the scoresheet -- sometimes multiple times -- when Boston plays the Flyers.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 54 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek 12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds 15 Jori Lehterठ- 21 Scott Laughton - 24 Matt Read
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere 47 Andrew MacDonald - 8 Robert Hà¤gg 23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
39 Alex Lyon [34 Petr Mrazek]
Scratches: 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 20 Taylor Leier (healthy), 22 Dale Weise (healthy), 29 Johnny Oduya (lower body), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, core muscle surgery), 30 Michal Neuvirth (lower body, out 4-6 weeks from Feb. 18).
BRUINS 63 Brad Marchand - 20 Riley Nash - 88 David Pastrnak 74 Jake DeBrusk - 46 David Krejci - 61 Rick Nash 43 Danton Heinen - 55 Noel Acciari - 12 Brian Gionta 59 Tim Schaller - 52 Sean Kuraly - 57 Tommy Wingels…‹
33 Zdeno Chara - 25 Brandon Carlo 47 Torey Krug - 44 Nick Holden 48 Matt Grzelcyk - 86 Kevan Miller…‹
40 Tuukka Rask [35 Anton Khudobin] …‹ Scratches: 54 Adam McQuaid (healthy), 37 Patrick Bergeron (foot fracture), 73 Charlie McAvoy (knee), 42 David Backes (game one of three-game NHL suspension), 10 Anders Björk (IR, shoulder surgery). …‹