What to watch as Flyers face Bruins again
Photo via The Boston Globe
The 18-14-5 Philadelphia Flyers take on the 19-10-6 Boston Bruins.
Here what to watch Tuesday night:
Bruins KILL the Flyers
This is the seventh of eight meetings this season between the Flyers and the Bruins, and the second of a home-and-home set and the second of three games they’ll play this week. On Monday night, the Flyers earned a 3-2 overtime victory.
The Flyers are 1-3-2 thus far against the Bruins. Boston owns two blowout wins against the Flyers (one at TD Garden and the other in Lake Tahoe), one shootout win (following a third period comeback), a shootout win (after a third-period comeback) and a 2-1 regulation win (after the Flyers led 1-0 in the third period). Philadelphia’s overtime win on Monday marked the third game this season that has gone beyond regulation.
After the Flyers play the Islanders on Thursday and the Bruins visit the Washington Capitals the same night, Philly and Boston will conclude their season series on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center.
Entering Tuesday’s game, the Flyers are three points (plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the Bruins in the battle for the final playoff spot in the East Division. Boston also holds two games in hand on the Flyers. From a practical standpoint, the Flyers need to win all three of this week’s head-to-head games with at least two coming in regulation. Boston would still have the two games in hand but the Flyers would pass them both in points and the tiebreaker advantage.
OT win Monday night
The Flyers better know to stay out of the penalty box in Tuesday night’s game. Boston is nine-for-18 on the power play against the Flyers this season, including one-for-two Monday night. On the flip side, while the Bruins have been stellar on the penalty kill this year against the rest of the East Division, Philly has had some power play success (five-for-20) of their own in meetings with the Bruins. The Flyers were one-for-three on the power play on Monday, including Sean Couturier’s game-tying goal in the third period.
In the first period of Monday’s game, Travis Konecny broke a 12-game goal drought. He has been very good offensively in each of the last two games; something the Flyers need to see continue. Overall, the Flyers played a good game at five-on-five against the Bruins on Monday. Philadelphia forechecked well and showed improved puck support in the defensive zone for the second straight game.
However, there were still a few too many breakdowns for comfort and way too many Flyers’ icings (Boston didn’t fare much better in those departments). Brian Elliott cranked out a strong game in net.
Projected lineups
Flyers:
Jakub Voracek – Claude Giroux – Travis Konecny
Michael Raffl – Tanner Laczynski – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Phil Myers
Sam Morin – Shayne Gostisbehere
Carter Hart
[Brian Elliott]
PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov.
PP2: Hayes, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Gostisbehere.
Scratches: Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Oskar Lindblom (healthy).
Injured reserve: Robert Hägg (shoulder, two-four weeks from 3/17/21), Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
Bruins:
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie – David Krejci – David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk – Charlie Coyle – Karson Kuhlman
Trent Frederic – Sean Kuraly – Chris Wagner
Matt Grzelcyk – Charlie McAvoy
Jeremy Lauzon – Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril – Kevan Miller
Jeremy Swayman
[Dan Vladar]
PP1: Pastrnak, Bergeron, Ritchie, Marchand, Grzelcyk
PP2: Coyle, Krejci, Smith, McAvoy, Zboril
Scratches: Anders Bjork (healthy), Jarred Tinordi (healthy), Zach Senyshyn (healthy, could return to Taxi Squad list), Stephen Kampfer (healthy).
Injured reserve: Tuukka Rask (upper body), Brandon Carlo (upper body), Ondrej Kase (upper body), John Moore (March 22 hip surgery, out for the season).
COVID-19 protocol: Jaroslav Halak.
