For the second time this week, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (4-6-1) will square off against Jim Montgomery's Boston Bruins (4-6-1). After playing each other at TD Garden on Tuesday, the teams will face off at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. Game time is 1:00 p.m. EDT.
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.
After Saturday, the season series against the Bruins will be two-thirds complete. The clubs will conclude their season series on Dec. 7 in Boston. On Tuesday night, goals by Tyson Foerster and Joel Farabee (empty net) lifted the Flyers to a 2-0 victory at TD Garden.
The Flyers enter Saturday's game having won back-to-back games -- and three of the last four matches -- for the first time during the still-young 2024-25 season. Saturday's game kicks off the Flyers' 14-game November schedule (eight home games, six road).
Here are five things to watch on Saturday afternoon.
1. Ersson on a heater
Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson is a contender for NHL Three Stars of the Week honors if he cranks out another strong performance against the Bruins on Saturday.
On Tuesday in Boston, Ersson recorded a 25-save shutout. Two nights later, at home against the St. Louis Blues, Ersson carried another shutout bid for two and a half periods. Ultimately, he turned back 20 of 21 shots in a 2-1 win.
Ersson has won each of his last three starts (vs. Minnesota, at Boston, and vs. St. Louis). Statistics are still a bit volatile at this stage of a season, but it's notable that Ersson has lowered his goals against average for the season to 2.72 and brought his save percentage to a hair below 90 percent (.897). The latter 30 minutes of the high-scoring win over Minnesota and the second of the back-to-back matches against Washington were not goalie-friendly hockey games for any netminder.
Depending on how he performs, the workload required in certain games and assuming he stays healthy, Ersson could start roughly a dozen of the 14 games in November. The Flyers do not have any back-to-back/ three-in-four/ four-in-six clusters of games on the schedule until Thanksgiving week.
2. Brink and Farabee reunited
During the preseason, wingers Farabee and Bobby Brink displayed good chemistry as linemates. They opened the regular season on a line with 18-year-old prospect Jett Luchanko (now with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League).
Farabee came out of the gates by posting a point (1g, 2a) in each of the first three games. After hitting a rough patch -- along with most of his teammates -- Farabee has put together another three-game point streak (1g, 2a) over the last three games.
Brink started out the season with a personal four-game point streak (1g, 3a). Some difficulties on the defensive side of the puck resulted in reduced ice time (8:57 TOI at home against Washington) and then DNDs in three consecutive games (at Washington, vs. Minnesota, vs. Montreal).
Over the last two games, Brink has been back in the Flyers' lineup and is now reunited with Farabee on the third line at 5-on-5 and the second power play unit. With three minutes remaining in Thursday's game against St. Louis, Brink and Farabee worked a give-and-go for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
3. Puck possession and shot suppression
The Flyers blocked 28 shots by the Bruins in Tuesday's win and 24 (led by a half-dozen blocks by Nick Seeler) against the Blues. While shot blocking and keeping the play to the perimeter of your end zone are undeniably important, today's NHL is very much a puck possession-oriented game.
The Flyers are still spending too much time in their own end of the ice, particularly in the Boston game despite not yielding many shots that reach the net. When you defend too much, sooner or later, there will be a costly breakdown or an unfriendly bounce of the puck.
Things have trended the right way over the last week in terms of cleaning up the team's own-zone defensive structure. Breakouts have subtly started to get better, too. But the Flyers need to start spending more time attacking and less time playing defense. On the offensive end, the Flyers still must become more opportunistic with their higher-grade looks at the net. Too many shot attempts are still going wide or over the net.
4. Penalty kill rolling, power play must buckle down
Over the last season-plus, the Flyers have taken pride in becoming one of the top penalty killing (and elite shorthanded scoring threat) clubs in the entire NHL.
In Boston on Tuesday, a lengthy 5-on-3 kill was a springboard to eventual victory. Against the Blues, Philly took just two minor penalties and went 2-for-2 on the PK. Overall, the Flyers rank 5th on the PK at 87.8 percent through the season's first 11 games.
The Flyers power play was red hot until the last few games but went 0-for-8 against the Habs (0-for-3), Bruins (0-for-2), and Blues (0-for-3). Special teams, by their rhythmic nature, are prone to hot and cold streaks. Even so, the Flyers need to make the last three games into a soon-forgotten little bump on the road before it becomes a larger issue.
To date, the Bruins are 76.0 percent on the PK. They are 14.9 percent on the power play.
5. Behind enemy lines: Boston Bruins
Several years ago, during Alain Vigneault's head coaching tenure, the Flyers had an upcoming game against a high-profile opponent that was mired in a recent rough spell, The former head coach was asked if the Flyers were catching the opponent at the perfect time or at the worst possible time.
"Depends on how we play against them," came the replay. "Ask me again afterwards."
The same scenario -- and pre-game assessment -- applies now to the rematch against the Bruins. Boston has lost five of its last six games, including Tuesday's shutout home loss to the Flyers despite a strong performance in net by Joonas Korpisalo. The Bruins followed it up by being on the wrong end of an 8-2 blowout at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Are the Flyers catching Montgomery's club at the best possible time or will they face a strong bounceback effort? Either way, the Flyers must focus on making life as hard as possible for the Bruins on Saturday afternoon. If the Flyers play the right way, they've got a legitimate shot at beating the Bruins twice within the same week.
