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Flyers Gameday: 1/21/21 @ BOS

January 21, 2021, 7:01 AM ET [366 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME 5: FLYERS @ BRUINS

In the first game of a four-game road trip, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (3-1-0) are in Beantown to take on Bruce Cassidy's Boston Bruins (1-1-1) at TD Garden. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.

This is the first of eight games between the teams this season. The teams will rematch on Friday. Thereafter, the clubs will play each other on Feb. 3 and 5 at the Wells Fargo Center, Feb. 21 and then March 7 in Boston and then an April 5 and 6 back-to-back set in Philadelphia to close out the season series.

Entering the 2020-21 season, the Flyers hold an all-time record of 73-97-10 record with 21 ties against the Bruins. The teams have also met six times in the playoffs, with the Flyers winning three series (1974, 1976 and 2010) and the Bruins winning three (1977, 1978 and 2011).
In 2019-20, the Flyers had a breakthrough season and won the series series against Boston. It took two memorable shootout wins for the Flyers plus and overtime victory to accomplish that feat.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers opened the season with back-to-back home wins against the Pittsburgh Penguins and followed it up with a split against the Buffalo Sabres. On the heels of a poor teamwide performance in a 6-1 blowout loss on Monday, Brian Elliott recorded a 40-save shutout in a 3-0 win on Monday.

Travis Konecny scored his fourth goal of the young season to break a scoreless deadlock late in the second period. In the third, the Flyers got insurance goals from Jakub Voracek (1st) and Kevin Hayes (2nd, ENG).

It was a costly victory, however. Already playing without Selke Trophy winning center Sean Couturier (rib injury), the Flyers lost defenseman Philippe Myers (rib fracture) and rookie center Morgan Frost in Tuesday's game. No timetables were released for Myers and Frost on Wednesday; an off-day for the Flyers. Frost was already placed on injured reserve.

The Flyers moved veteran defenseman Derrick Pouliot from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' roster to the taxi squad. Meanwhile, the injuries to Myers and Frost will result in Mark Friedman and Connor Bunnaman playing for the first time this season.

The Flyers have also activated Samuel Morin from the taxi squad to the main roster. He is eligible to dress for this game or could be scratched as an extra skater. Lastly, Shayne Gostisbehere was removed from the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list. He skated on his own at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Wednesday. Vigneault indicated that Gostisbehere would rejoin the team at practice when the club returns to the Philadelphia area.

Bruins Outlook

Boston started the season with a three-game road trip. In Newark, the Bruins (who were winless in shootouts last year) took a 3-2 shootout decision over the Devils last Thursday before a 2-1 overtime loss on Saturday. On Monday, the host New York Islanders nipped the Bruins, 1-0.

The Bruins remain without top scorer David Pastrnak, who underwent off-season hip surgery. Pastrnak took part in practice on Wednesday with the full group of players. However, he is not yet ready to be cleared to play for either of the games against the Flyers.

Brad Marchand has three points (1g, 2a) over the first three games while perennial Selke candidate Patrice Bergeron has a goal and an assist. Nick Ritchie scored the other goal. Tuukka Rask started two of the games while Jaroslav Halak was in goal for the OT loss to the Devils.

Projected lineups (Will be changed)

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 13 Kevin Hayes - 86 Joel Farabee
23 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Michael Raffl - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel

9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
56 Erik Gustafsson - 61 Justin Braun
8 Robert Hägg - 3 Mark Friedman

79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]

PP1: Provorov, Giroux, Hayes, Lindblom, TK
PP2: Farabee, JVR, Patrick, Voracek, Gustafsson

Scratches: 55 Samuel Morin (healthy), 14 Sean Couturier (costochondral separation), 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (COVID-19 protocol, INR), 5 Phil Myers (rib fracture, week-to-week), 48 Morgan Frost (IR, dislocated shoulder).


BRUINS

63 Brad Marchand - 37 Patrice Bergeron - 74 Jake DeBrusk
21 Nick Ritchie - 46 David Krejci - 23 Jack Studnicka
10 Anders Bjork - 13 Charlie Coyle - 12 Craig Smith
11 Trent Frederic - 52 Sean Kuraly - 14 Chris Wagner​

79 Jeremy Lauzon - 73 Charlie McAvoy
48 Matt Grzelcyk - 25 Brandon Carlo
67 Jakub Zboril - 86 Kevan Miller ​

40 Tuukka Rask
41 Jaroslav Halak​

PP1: Ritchie, Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci, Grzelcyk
PP2: DeBrusk, Coyle, Smith, Zboril, McAvoy​

Scratches: 26 Par Lindholm (healthy), 27 John Moore (healthy), 28 Ondrej Kase (IR, upper body),
75 Connor Clifton (healthy), 88 David Pastrnak (IR, hip surgery).
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