Trouble’s Bruin as Flyers visit Boston

Well, the winning streak went well – there’s no shame in losing to the reigning Stanley Cup champions in a rollicking, high-scoring game. There were more positives (Owen Tippett scored two goals, Tyson Foerster one) than negatives (close penalties galore!), but a loss is a loss. Tonight the Flyers travel to Boston to play back-to-back first half games and the Bruins find themselves in a strange position to say the least.

The last time the Flyers faced the Bruins, they were shut out at home. A few days earlier, the Flyers shut out the Bruins at home. The following month, the Bruins fired Jim Montgomery (who was immediately hired by the St. Louis Blues) and promoted Joe Sacco to head coach. Boston is also relying on Jeremy Swayman as a starter again, with mixed results – after all, he missed all of camp and preseason due to contract disputes and is only now getting his mojo back. Heading into today’s game, the Bruins sit third in the Atlantic Division and are on a three-game winning streak. The caveat is that they have played a few more games than the teams behind them: two more than the Buffalo Sabers and four more than the Tampa Bay Lightning. On points, the Bruins are clinging to a wildcard spot.

The Flyers are now tied on points with the New York Rangers and, in percentage terms, just outside the playoff bubble. The playoffs aren’t the goal this year, of course, but last month’s Flyers are more like the team that narrowly missed out on last season: Young players stepping up, like in Thursday’s Panthers game. There is also good news on the injury front: Sam Ersson and Jamie Drysdale are officially back in action and Nic Deslauriers has been placed on the injured reserve retroactively to November 9th. Deslauriers’ move to IR is important because it means the Flyers can active both Ersson and Drysdale without having to clear a spot on the roster. As long as players continue to get injured, the Flyers can continue to make important roster decisions.

Storylines to watch

Sam Ersson is back??

After the goaltending debacle in the Panthers game (neither Aleksei Kolosov nor Ivan Fedotov looked competent), it is clear that the Flyers need their No. 1 goaltender back in the crease. He’s missed almost a full month now (his last game was November 11th against the San Jose Sharks), so there’s a chance his first start will be stalled. Either way, the Flyers will need to isolate their goaltender as he returns to the NHL.

The youngsters

Much of the Flyers’ good work this season is due to veterans Travis Konecny ​​​​and Travis Sanheim – both have had outstanding seasons, but if this rebuild is to work, the younger players will need to step up when it matters most. We saw that from three strikers against Florida: Owen Tippett with two goals, Tyson Foerster with a big hit and Matvei Michkov with a hectic three-assist evening. It was a sloppy start for TyFo and Tippett, but Foerster is on a three-game point streak and Tippett has scored in two straight games; You have to keep that momentum going.

Meanwhile, Joel Farabee gets bitten by a snake as everyone comes out, but other than a stupid retaliatory penalty on Thursday, he’s played well – he just has to score. Bobby Brink also has to pull himself together; He got slapped by Torts on the bench in the loss to the Panthers (probably for the interference penalty) and needs to remain disciplined given his already tenuous hold on a roster spot.

Do the Bruins still have “it”?

That was the million-dollar question that plagued Boston all season. They botched their goaltending situation and went into the season in a bad mood because of it, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov’s contracts were terrible at the moment they were signed, Brad Marchand seems to be a step back (he’s even appeared in trade rumors), Charlie McAvoy isn’t playing up to his standards and David Pastrnak hasn’t looked like Pasta for parts of the season. The Bruins are an aging, overpaid roster with a center problem almost as serious as the Flyers’, and Montgomery’s firing came as management tried to cover itself for fumbling in free agency and its star goaltender , who needed a contract, bypassed. Without the Swayman-Ullmark tandem in net, many of this roster’s problems are too obvious to ignore; The playoffs are the expectation for Boston, but it’s uncertain if they have what it takes to even get there, let alone do anything in the first round.

Planned lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Joel Farabee – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae – Rasmus Ristolainen
Egor Zamula – Nick Seeler

Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)

Boston Bruins

Brad Marchand – Elias Lindholm – David Pastrnak
Morgan Geekie – Pavel Zacha – Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic – Charlie Coyle – Mark Kastelic
Cole Koepke – John Beecher – Marc McLaughlin

Jordan Oesterle – Charlie McAvoy
Nikita Zadorov – Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei – Andrew Peeke

Jeremy Swayman
(Joonas Korpisalo)

Game day tunes

It’s a week into December, but an 18-minute rock odyssey classic from The Decemberists seems appropriate. It still cracks 20 years later.

Statistics courtesy of Hockey Reference