The Flyers will look to pick up points for the third straight game this season in Wednesday night’s nationally televised tilt against the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The game will be shown on the TNT networks and the opening faceoff is scheduled for 7:30.
Both team’s are coming off wins, where the Flyers lit up the Seattle Kraken 6-1 on Monday after dropping their home opener to the Canucks in overtime. The Bruins opened their season at home and smothered the visiting Dallas Stars 3-1, a game that saw Brad Marchand score two goals.
The Flyers struggled against the Bruins last season, compiling only two wins against five loses, including an ugly 7-3 blow out at the Lake Tahoe outdoor game. But both teams have undergone personnel changes in the hopes of improving their fortunes. Philadelphia added three new defensemen to their blue line and the Bruins have had to replace franchise icon Tuukka Rask with 22 year-old goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
Flyers to Look For
–Martin Jones will get his first start in goal for the Flyers.
–Rasmus Ristolainen may still battling an upper body injury, but he is set to make his regular season debut. Nick Seeler is still around if anything goes wrong, though.
-Max Willman was loaned to Lehigh Valley, as new Flyer Zack MacEwen will see the ice for his Philadelphia debut.
–Claude Giroux has scored in each of the team’s first two games while amassing seven shots. Look for him to keep shooting.
–Joel Farabee has collected four points (2G, 2A) and leads the team in scoring.
Keys to the Game
The best place to start in stopping Boston is to limit the perfection line of Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak. These players destroyed the Flyers last season and are typically what drives the Bruins offense. Trying to contain this group will be a great test for the revamped Flyers’ defense corps and act as a marker to gauge how much they have improved.
They will need to negate the Bruins forechecking. The Bruins forecheck helps their depth lines sustain offense, but the deep possession also helps cover a Boston blueline that is prone to mistakes when trying to escape their own end. The more time the Flyers spend in the offensive zone, the more likely the Bruins defense is to wilt. However, it will require them to overcome the relentless Bruins pressure.
Stalwart goaltender Tuukka Rask is gone for now, but young keeper Jeremy Swayman showed promise last season. So much promise, that the Bruins allowed veteran back up Jaroslav Halak to sign with Vancouver. Swayman is a big and athletic keeper, but is prone to some positional blunders when under pressure. The Flyers need to keep their “shoot first” mentality, one that has served up 10 goals in the first two games, to try to get the Bruins netminder scrambling. The Bruins allowed only 47 shot attempts in their opener.
Finally, the Flyers need to avoid the penalty box as much as possible. With so many new players, their special teams are still evolving and gelling. The core of the Bruins’ top power play has been together for a half decade and it is lethal. The special teams tilt heavily in the Bruins favor. Even if Philadelphia can dominate 5 v. 5 play, the Bruins’ power play could make enough of an impact to decide the game and steal a win.