5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Bruins

Playing their seventh game in the last 11 nights, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (26-37-13) will host an Easter Sunday meeting with Jim Montgomery's Boston Bruins (62-12-5). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 6:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be nationally televised on TNT. The radio feed will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the lone game played at the Wells Fargo Center. The Bruins had little trouble defeating the Flyers in the two games played at TD Garden this season, prevailing 4-1 on Nov. 17 and routing the Flyers by a 6-0 score in an MLK Day matinee on Jan. 16.
The Flyers have played to "hockey .500" on home ice this season, posting a 17-17-5 mark on home ice. However, the club went 0-for-0 on their just-completed four-game road trip, getting outscored by a combined 16-5 (4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-0) and never leading in any game. Overall, the Flyers are winless in their last six games (0-5-1) dating back to March 5.
The Bruins, meanwhile, have already wrapped up the President's Trophy for the best record in the NHL during the 2022-23 regular season. However, with three games remaining on their schedule, the Bruins still have something to play for beyond a few tune-up games prior to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
By virtue of skating to a 2-1 home win on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, the Bruins have tied the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning for the most wins (62) in one season. The Bruins can set a new record tonight. Side note: neither the 1995-96 Red Wings nor the 2018-19 Lightning won the Stanley Cup in their record-setting year but both won each of the next two Cup championships.
Here are five things to watch in tonight's game:
1. Goalie matchup
Likely Vezina Trophy finalist Linus Ullmark (48 GP, 39-6-1, 1.89 GAA, .938 SV%, two shutouts) stopped 29 of 30 shots to earn the win for the Bruins in Saturday's game against New Jersey. Tonight, the Flyers will play against Bruins 1B goalie Jeremy Swayman.
In his own right, Swayman has had an excellent season (34 GP, 22-6-4, 2.20 GAA, .921 save percentage, four shutouts). He's also had plenty of success against the Flyers in his still-young career, dating back to when he won his NHL debut against Philly in April 2021. Earlier this season, Swayman recorded a 29-save shutout of the Flyers in the 6-0 game at TD Garden on Jan. 16.
Carter Hart started Saturday's game in Elmont against the Islanders. He was pulled after the second period, having made 15 saves on 18 shots. Felix Sandström mopped up in the third period, seeing only three shots (two saves).
The third goal by Hart-- a left circle shot that beat him under his armpit to the short side -- was one the goalie should have stopped. Prior to that, however, he wasn't playing a bad game.
Did Hart, who recently missed five games with a lower-body injury, have a physical issue during the game? The goalie said afterwards he physically felt fine. The goalie also did not think his performance or the score of the game were sufficient justification for the change in net.
"I didn't think I deserved to be pulled, but it is what it is," Hart said.
Tortorella wasn't in the mood to explain the decision, saying only, "I wanted to take him out."
Throughout the season, the Flyers have tabbed the backup goalie to start the second game of a back-to-back set. If Tortorella sticks with that pattern, it will be Sandström (2-11-3, 2.63 GAA, .881 save percentage) in net tonight. The fact that Hart has only recently returned from injury, had no practice time, and had a so-so performance by his standards in Thursday's game in Dallas may also come into play.
On the flip side, Hart insists that he feels well and is determined to finish the season healthy and productive after missing the conclusions of each of the prior two seasons due to injury. He didn't have a particularly heavy workload in Saturday's game. As such, it's possible that Tortorella could come right back with Hart against Boston (although Hart has largely struggled against the Bruins in his career).
For the 2022-23 season, Hart has a 21-23-10 record, 2.94 GAA, and .907 save percentage. He's recorded two shutouts this season.
2. Who's behind the bench?
This has become a daily late-season question: Will Tortorella be behind the bench for the next game or will he watch from elsewhere and delegate acting head coach duties for the game to one of his assistant coaches?
Tortorella was behind the bench in Dallas on Thursday and New York last night. In total, he's coached three of the last six games, while giving two to Brad Shaw and one to Rocky Thompson. Tortorella has also pledged that Darryl Williams would get at least one game behind the bench.
Who will be behind the Flyers' bench in tonight's nationally televised game: Tortorella, Williams, Shaw orThompson?
3. Milestone Watch Continues
With the Flyers having scored but a single goal -- a second period tally by Kevin Hayes in Dallas -- over the last two games, the milestone watch for several players will go into a third game.
* Travis Konecny, pointless in the last three games after scoring in each of his first two games back in the lineup from a 16-game injury absence, needs one goal for the first 30-goal season of his NHL career. He needs two points tonight to pull his season points-per-game average back to an even 1.0 per game (29g, 27a, 56 points in 57 games).
* Morgan Frost, pointless in the last two games after rattling off the first five-game point streak of his NHL career, is one goal shy of a 20-goal season in his first full-length campaign in the NHL. Frost very nearly was gifted a fluke shorthanded goal last night in New York, as the Islanders' Ryan Pulock came within a whisker of an own goal before Pulock swept away his own mistake (tucking a loose puck through goalie Ilya Sorokin's pads after a long-range shot by Frost).
* James van Riemsdyk, who tallied in the St. Louis game (11th goal of the season), still needs one goal over the season's final three games to reach 300 regular season tallies for his NHL career.
4. Flyers Line Play
The Flyers will not hold a morning skate on Sunday. Tortorella will speak to the media at 3:45 p.m. EDT. At that time, the coach will announce:
* whether Sandström or Hart gets the start against the Bruins.
* whether the Flyers stick with the 12 forwards/ 6 defensemen personnel arrangement they've used the last two games or go back to 11F/7D.
* whether there are any lineup changes to announce. Tony DeAngelo has been a healthy scratch in each of the last two games, Will DeAngelo re-enter the lineup and Justin Braun exit? Additionally, forward Kieffer Bellows is available if Tortorella opts to dress him in lieu of Tanner Laczynski or another forward.
Tortorella indicated that the team may call up at least one more player from the Phantoms -- most likely for Tuesday's home game against Columbus -- before the season concludes in Chicago on Thursday. It was been speculated but not confirmed that Swedish defenseman Adam Ginning will be the one to get the recall. The Phantoms clinched a Calder Cup playoff spot last night but still have their seeding to play for over their final three games (currently in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division via tiebreaker, the Phantoms would have home ice advantage in the first roubd they could hang on to a top-3 spot in the division).
The Flyers' starting lineup in New York was as follows. It is subject to change for tonight:
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers 58 Tanner Laczynski - 22 Brendan Lemieux
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
32 Felix Sandström
79 Carter Hart
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Boston Bruins
The Bruins will enter the playoffs as a prohibitive favorite against whomever they play in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs but, of course, there are no guarantees in hockey. Apart from aiming for the NHL's single-season record for wins, the Bruins will await an opponent.
Will it be the current lower-wildcard seed (via tiebreaker disadvantage vs. Florida), the Islanders? Will the Panthers slip from the upper wildcard (playing Carolina or New Jersey in the first round) into the spot that would draw Boston? Will the Pittsburgh Penguins, one point behind Florida and the Islanders but needing to finish ahead of both in points because of an insurmountable tiebreaker disadvantage,somehow pull out a wildcard spot in their final two games?
For now, the Bruins can only focus on their own quest for NHL history. Meanwhile, David Pastrnak (57g, 48a, 105 points) is three goals away from becoming just the second player in the Bruins' illustrious history to achieve a 60-goal season. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito accomplished the feat in four different seasons during his years with the Bruins.
Boston will not hold a morning skate today. Below are the Bruins' lines from Saturday's game: