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Flyers Gameday: 3/10/20 vs. BOS

March 10, 2020, 5:51 AM ET [408 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME 68: FLYERS vs. BRUINS

In the final game of a three-game homestand, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (41-20-7 overall, 25-5-3 home) host Bruce Cassidy's Boston Bruins (43-14-12 overall, 21-10-3 away) on Tuesday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

The game will be televised locally on NBCSP and nationally on NBCSN. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on the Flyers Radio 24/7 component of the Flyers Broadcast Network.

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the second and final game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 2-0-0 against the Bruins this season, with both wins coming via shootout.

On Nov. 10 at TD Garden, the Flyers gritted out a 3-2 shootout win. Heading into the game, the Flyers had a pronounced fatigue-factor disadvantage. Boston had played only once in the four previous nights. One night after an emotional and high-energy 3-2 shootout win in Toronto, this match was Philly's third game in four nights and fourth game in six.

Carter Hart delivered. Despite Boston tallying a pair of third period goals -- he had little chance of stopping either -- Hart was the Flyers best player. He stopped 15 of 17 third period shots, including a David Pastrnak penalty shot at 15:04, two tough tests on a late regulation penalty kill, a deflected rising shot through traffic and then turned back Charlie Coyle, Brad Marchand and Pastrnak again in the shootout.

All totaled, Hart stopped 26 of 28 shots in regulation and OT plus 3 of 3 in the skills competition to nail down a second point.

Travis Konecny and Phil Myers scored first period goals for the Flyers. Sean Couturier assisted on both. Oskar Lindblom got the primary assist on the first and Konecny had the primary (11th) on the latter.

Danton Heinen scored early in the third period for Boston. Marchand tied the game with 7:38 left in regulation. Coyle and Zdeno Chara assisted on the first. With a keep at the point to start the game-tying sequence, Matt Grzelcyk got the lone assist on the second.

Jaroslav Halak got the start in goal. He kept his team in the game while they were being outplayed in the opening 40 minutes, with no denial bigger than one of Giroux with a 3-0 lead on his stick. Overall, Halak stopped 27 of 29 shots in regulation and OT and then went 1-for-2 in the shootout.

On Jan. 13 in Philadelphia, the Flyers overcame a 5-2 deficit to eventually win by shootout, 6-5.

It was an unsightly night from a stats perspective (5 GA) but there were breakdowns on most of them and only one where he was part of the issue on why it ended up in the net. Showing his unusual maturity for a 21-year-old netminder, Hart slammed the door when needed over the latter part of the game to enable his team to claw back into the game.

At least in the first and second periods, this game was the polar opposite of the tight-checking content Philly played in a 1-0 loss to Tampa Bay two nights earlier.

Anders Björk and David Krejci (power play) gave Boston a 2-0 lead in the first period. Kevin Hayes (power play) got it back before the end of the period.

In the second period, there was a parade of goals and breakdowns on both sides, and it ended like it started: with Boston leading by one. Goals by Pastrnak, Coyle (and Krejci (2nd of game) were answered by Travis Sanheim, Couturier and Connor Bunnaman (1st in NHL).

Sanheim struck again, this time at 4-on-4, to force overtime. After a frenetic, and action-packed OT, nearly won by Ivan Provorov just before the buzzer, the game went to a shootout.

After four scoreless shootout rounds, Konecny scored. Brad Marchand then fumbled the puck at the center ice dot, grazing it with the heel of his stick but never controlling it. The puck moved maybe an inch or two from the dot, thereby losing his attempt to end the game.

FLYERS OUTLOOK

With the Washington Capitals picking up one point from Monday's road 3-2 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Caps moved one point ahead of the Flyers atop the Metropolitan Divison. If the Flyers can beat the President's Trophy race leading Bruins by any means, Philadelphia will move into sole possession of first place in the Metro.

Additionally, a regulation win by the Flyers would swing the primary tiebreaker category advantage (currently 31-31) in their favor. An overtime Flyers win would create a deadlock on both RW and ROW (37-37). A win of any kind would also pull the Flyers one ahead in total wins (42-41), which is the tertiary tiebreaker.

In order to pull off that accomplishment, the Flyers will need to elevate their games back to the level they have shown for most of their current nine-game winning streak, especially back-to-back wins last week in Washington and at home against Carolina. Saturday's performance, a 3-1 home win over Buffalo, was lackluster, but Hart's stellar play in net and a two-goal outburst from Giroux lifted the team before Joel Farabee added some late-game insurance.

The Flyers had practice on Monday at the Wells Fargo Center after taking their team picture (in which Oskar Lindblom, undergoing chemotherapy treatments as he battled Ewing Sarcoma, was on hand). Defenseman Phil Myers, who limped off the ice on Saturday from a blocked shot before returning for the rest of the game, started practice with the team but left early.

When Myers left the ice, defense pairings were shuffled around. Sanheim skated with Robert Hägg, while Justin Braun was with Shayne Gostisbehere. If Myers is not able to play on Tuesday, this will be the likely second and third pairings. If Myers can dress for the game, pairings will revert to their norms of recent weeks. The Flyers will hold an optional morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Whenever there is a morning skate, whether he's starting or not, Hart likes to participate in order to get in his daily work. Hart will get the nod in goal for this game. Hart may also get Thursday's game in Tampa Bay before Brian Elliott starts one of the two games of the weekend home back-to-back on Saturday afternoon against Minnesota or Sunday afternoon against Edmonton.

BRUINS OUTLOOK

With 13 games left to play for both teams, the Bruins currently hold a six-point lead and 37-35 RW tiebreaker edge on the second-place Lighting in the Atlantic Division standings. Boston has a six-point edge on the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues as well as Tampa for the President's Trophy, and the corresponding home-ice edge throughout the playoffs.

No team in the NHL has officially clinched a playoff spot yet. However, Boston's magic number to guarantee themselves a top-three spot in the Atlantic (and, hence, a playoff spot) is at six. Any combination of six points the Bruins earn and the fourth-place Florida Panthers fail to earn guarantees the Bruins will be in the playoffs. The magic number to beat out Tampa for first place in the Atlantic is at 20.

The Bruins won won seven of their last 10 games, but are coming off a 5-3 home loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday; just the fourth time the Bruins have suffered a regulation defeat on home ice all season. Saturday's game was a feisty, old-schoolish battle with a combined 94 penalty minutes between the teams. Pastrnak scored his 48th goal of the season in a losing cause.

Regular starting defensemen Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug both missed Monday's practice. Cassidy said afterwards that both players are still dealing with upper-body injuries and neither will be available for the game in Philadelphia. Carlo took an elbow to the face on March 3. However, young defenseman Connor Clifton will return to the lineup for the first time since being sidelined with an upper-body injury on Dec. 29. He will be paired with John Moore against the Flyers.


PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change)

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
49 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
21 Scott Laughton - 38 Derek Grant - 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl - 44 Nate Thompson - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel

9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim -8 Robert Hägg
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 61 Justin Braun

79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]

Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, Voracek, Provorov.
Power Play 2: Grant, Hayes, Aube-Kubel, Sanheim or Gostisbehere, Niskanen.

Scratches: one of 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (healthy) or 5 Phil Myers (fractured right kneecap, March 7), 25 James van Riemsdyk (broken right index finger, out 4-to-6 weeks from March 4).

LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).

BRUINS

63 Brad Marchand - 37 Patrice Bergeron - 88 David Pastrnak
21 Nick Ritchie - 46 David Krejci - 28 Ondrej Kase
52 Sean Kuraly - 13 Charlie Coyle - 74 Jake DeBrusk
20 Joakim Nordström - 26 Pär Lindholm - 14 Chris Wagner​

33 Zdeno Chara - 73 Charlie McAvoy
48 Matt Grzelcyk - 75 Connor Clifton
27 John Moore - 79 Jeremy Lauzon​

40 Tuukka Rask
41 Jaroslav Halak​

Power Play 1: Marchand, Bergeron, Coyle, Pastrnak, McAvoy
Power Play 2: : Krejci, Kase, DeBrusk, Grzelcyk, McAvoy

Scraches: 10 Anders Björk (healthy), 25 Brandon Carlo (upper body), 47 Torey Krug (upper body), 81 Anton Blidh (healthy).

IR: 86 Kevan Miller (broken kneecap)

25 Brandon Carlo (upper body, took an elbow to his face, Mar. 4) will not play..
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