5 THINGS: Flyers @ Bruins
Looking to snap a four-game winless streak, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (7-6-3) are in Beantown on Thursday to take on Jim Montgomery's Boston Bruins (14-2-0
GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of three meetings this season between the longtime rivals, and the first of two in Boston. The Flyers and Bruins will rematch at TD Garden on the afternoon of Jan. 16 for an MLK Day matinee. The lone game at the Wells Fargo Center will take place on the evening of April 9.
Tonight's game marks a career milestone for Tortorella. The Boston native will coach his 1,400th NHL game, becoming the first American-born NHL head coach to reach that mark.
The Flyers, who are 0-3-1 in their last four games, enter this game coming off a 5-4 overtime road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday evening. Philadelphia rallied back from deficits of 2-0 in the second period and 4-2 in the third period to claim one point before yielding a fatal 3-on-1 counterattack in overtime that ended the game in sudden death
.Kevin Hayes (4th goal of the season), Noah Cates (4th), Nick Seeler (2nd) and Travis Konecny (PPG, 7th) scored for the Flyers in the Columbus game. However, the Flyers' skaters in front of Carter Hart (28 saves on 33 shots) did not give the Philadelphia netminder much of a chance at preventing any of the five Columbus goals. Two were deflected into the net off Flyers' defensemen including a power play goal. Two were scored off well-executed Columbus odd-man rushes including the OT winner. The other was a breakaway.
The Bruins. who are a perfect 9-0-0 on home ice thus far, bring a four-game winning streak into this game. They last played on Sunday, defeating the visiting Vancouver Canucks by a 5-2 score.
Connor Clifton (2nd goal of the season), Patrice Bergeron (PPG, 8th), Pavel Zacha (3rd), Brad Marchand (PPG, 5th) and Tomas Nosek (ENG, SHG, 1st) tallied for Boston. David Pastrnak collected assists on the two power play goals. Linus Ullmark earned the win in goal with 29 saves on 31 shots. Both Vancouver goals were scored on the power play.
Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game.
1. Make the Bruins earn their goals.
Tortorella said after last Saturday's game that no team can be successful when they are fighting against two different opponents: the rival team and themselves. This is especially true when going up against a club of Boston's caliber.
The Flyers' overall process at 5-on-5 has been significantly better over the last five games (1-3-2) than it was on the whole over the season's first 11 games (6-3-2). Philly's undoing in their recent downturn comes largely from self-inflicted wounds: unforced turnovers, bad penalties coupled with a penalty kill that's gone AWOL, and key Philadelphia players being the main culprits.
Recently, with the exception of the Dallas Stars, the Flyers have been playing a series of struggling opponents. Even Dallas was in a mini-slump heading into their game in Philadelphia this past Sunday. For the Flyers to come away with only one of eight possible points from the last four games was a disappointment.
Thursday's game presents a different level of challenge: the Bruins are a red-hot opponent that can make enough plays to defeat even an opponent who plays a relatively clean game in terms of their own puck management and discipline.
The Flyers must be crisp in their breakouts from the end zone, stay out of the penalty box, generate traffic and have attackers stop at (not just skate past) the net, and give their goaltending a fair shot at making enough saves to win. The closest the Flyers have come to doing so for the decided majority of regulation was their 5-1 win over St. Louis on Nov. 8.
Philly will need a similar level of execution -- plus a little beyond that -- to have a fighting chance at upsetting the Bruins on Boston's home ice. It's a classic "gut check" game for the Flyers.
2. Avoid chasing the game.
Resilience has not been an issue for the Flyers.Tortorella's team has lacked nothing for persistence and feistiness even when faced with the challenge of working to make a comeback when trailing by one or more goals.
However, as Tortorella himself has said, "We can't live on that property." The Flyers have given up the game's first goal in 12 of the 16 games played to date. It's a testament to the club's rediscovered fortitude that the Flyers are 5-4-3 when trailing first.
Even so, it's not a sustainable way for any team to collect points. The recent game against Dallas was one in which the Flyers were even (and sometimes slightly ahead) in terms of puck possession time and quality at 5-on-5 but forced to play catch up on the scoreboard. It didn't work, and the Stars ultimately pulled away in the third period because of special teams outcomes.
The Bruins are a perfect 10-0-0 when scoring first. Getting the first goal against Boston is far from a guarantee of victory -- the Bruins have still managed to win four of the six games in which they trailed first -- but it certainly helps the opponent's chances.
3. The Hart Factor
Carter Hart's scorching hot start to the season was at a level that no goaltender in the world could realistically sustain. Likewise, he's played better than the numbers from his last three starts.
He's allowed 11 goals on the last 86 shots he's faced (.872 save percentage) but there's arguably only been only one goal that "should" have been stopped and an additional one or two where a save was not impossible -- Booner Jenner's breakaway goal on Tuesday, for example -- but which could not be fairly "blamed' on the netminder.
For the season, Hart still carries a .929 save percentage -- a Vezina caliber number if delivered over a full season -- to go along with his 2.42 goals against average and 6-2-3 record.
The Bruins, however, are an opponent against whom Hart has had some of most gut-wrenching losses in his career; sometimes through no fault of his own and other times in which his own performance was below his standards. Record-wise, he's 4-5-2 for his career against Boston but with a bloated 3.69 GAA and pedestrian .883 save percentage.
The biggest trouble spot: dealing with Boston's power play. The Bruins have scored 15 power play goals against Hart -- by far, the most by any opponent -- in the goalie's 11 games against the team. Pastrnak in particular has done massive damage on the power play, while Marchand owns both power play and shorthanded goals against the Flyers with Hart in net.
Given the Flyers' recent special teams woes including going a woeful 2-for-7 in their last seven penalty kill opportunities, Thursday's game presents a massive challenge for Philadelphia. It's certainly not all on Hart.
The team collectively MUST limit the penalties they take: no lazy stick infractions, no being goaded into retaliatory infractions, no housekeeping penalties like too-many-men-on-the-ice and no "whoops" minors like delay of game for putting the puck over the glass from the D-zone. They can't get caught in bad line changes. Philly can also ill-afford to get scrambled in coverages or leave the back door uncovered with Hart having to deal with a threat on the other side.
The rest is up to Hart. It's still a heavy lift against a team that can still make some plays even when well-defended, but that's the nature of the goaltending position.
As of this writing, it is not confirmed that Hart will get the start in Boston. However, he seems to be a likelier choice than Felix Sandström. This is a crossroads game in which the Flyers team is trying to end a four-game winless skid by u[setting a marquee opponent.
4. Flyers Line Play TBD
Tortorella made several in-game line combination switches on Tuesday after a listless first period against the Blue Jackets. The Flyers' play picked up thereafter. As such, the primary lines that finished the game could carry over into tonight's game in Boston.
However, with an off-day on Wednesday, the starting combinations are unconfirmed ahead of Thursday's morning skate at TD. As such,the potential lineup below is speculatory.
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Owen Tippett - 49 Noah Cates - 17 Zack MacEwen
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Max Willman
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 38 Patrick Brown
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
32 Felix Sandström
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Boston Bruins
The Bruins have a deep, veteran-oriented lineup filled with familiar names. With No. 1 defenseman Charlie McAvoy now back from offseason shoulder surgery, the roster is even more formidable. McAvoy will dress in his fourth game of the season.
In terms of teamwide performance, the Bruins enter Thursday's game as the NHL's stingiest defensive team, topping the league with a 2.19 team GAA. The club is also scoring at a 4.00 goals per game pace; also tops in the NHL. The Flyers have fallen to 13th in the NHL with a 3.00 GAA and rank tied for 30th in scoring at 2.56 goals per game.
Boston's stellar record has been built on being strong in all manpower situations: a 37-24 edge in 5-on-5 goal differential, a robust 25.4 percent success rate on the power play (ranked 7th in the NHL), and the NHL's number-one ranked penalty kill (91.7 percent).
The Bruins are also the NHL's No. 2 ranked team on faceoffs at a 57.1 percent winning percentage. No longer having Claude Giroux and with Sean Couturier sidelined, the Flyers have struggled on draws this year. They enter tonight's game at 45.0 percent, ranked 31st. Over the past week, the Flyers have made strides in terms of sustaining puck possession and generating quality scoring chances but they still rank in the bottom five for the season, while Boston is in the top one-third.
In terms of individual scoring, there are few surprises on the Boston leaderboard: Pastrnak has racked up 25 points (9g, 16a) through 16 games, defenseman Hampus Lindholm has 13 assists among his 17 points (he's also a traditional plus-18), perennial Selke candidate Bergeron has 15 points (8g, 7a) and is a plus-10. Jake DeBrusk has five goals and 11 points and former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall has posted five goals and 10 points.
Perpetual agitator and two-way standout Marchand was unavailable until late October but has made up for lost time with 11 points (5g, 6a) through his first eight games. The 34-year-old brings a five-game point streak (2g, 5a) into this game and has recorded at least one point in seven of his eight games played to date. For the season, eight of Marchand's points (3g, 5a) have come on the power play.
In net, Ullmark has already made 12 starts (11-1-0, 1.96 GAA, .936 save percentage, one shutout). Jeremy Swayman, whose had some success against the Flyers in his still-young career, has made three starts and one relief appearance (2-1-0, 3.45 GAA, .878 SV%).
Projected lineup (subject to change)
63 Brad Marchand - 37 Patrice Bergeron - 88 David Pastrnak
71 Taylor Hall - 46 David Krejci - 74 Jake DeBrusk
11 Trent Frederic - 13 Charlie Coyle - 18 Pavel Zacha
17 Nick Foligno - 92 Tomas Nosek - 10 A.J. Greer
48 Matt Grzelcyk - 73 Charlie McAvoy
27 Hampus Lindholm - 75 Connor Clifton
67 Jakub Zboril - 25 Brandon Carlo
35 Linus Ullmark
[1 Jeremy Swayman]
