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Flyers off to Boston as they’ll face Tuukka Rask in his return

By Ariel Melendez

STATELINE, NEVADA - FEBRUARY 21: Sean Couturier #14 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates with the puck pressured by Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins during the 'NHL Outdoors At Lake Tahoe' at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort on February 21, 2021 in Stateline, Nevada. The Bruins defeated the Flyers 7-3. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
STATELINE, NEVADA - FEBRUARY 21: Sean Couturier #14 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates with the puck pressured by Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins during the 'NHL Outdoors At Lake Tahoe' at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort on February 21, 2021 in Stateline, Nevada. The Bruins defeated the Flyers 7-3. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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The Flyers will hit the road for the first time since returning from their West Coast trip. It’s a quick one against the Bruins as they’ll head back home after for a matchup with the Rangers on Saturday.

Philadelphia has not won a game since they took on the Seattle Kraken to open their last road trip. They’ve gone 0-2-3 since then, collecting points in three of their last five games. They had a 2-0 lead in the third period over San Jose in a game that goals weren’t scored until the final frame. Tomas Hertl scored a natural hat trick, including the overtime winner, to stun the Flyers.

Boston, on the other hand, is riding high off a convincing 5-1 victory over the Canadiens. Brad Marchand had three goals while Curtis Lazar scored twice in the win.

This is the third and final game between the two teams. They’ve split the first two games, both of which were at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers used a three-goal third period to pull away with the 6-3 victory on October 20th. A month later, the Bruins scored two in both the second and third to earn a 5-2 victory.

Philadelphia Flyers

Record: 13-15-7 (33 points, 6th in Metro)

The Flyers will be getting plenty of reinforcements back as they previously had six players in COVID protocol when they took on the Penguins last week. Now, it’s only Rasmus Ristolainen who is sidelined. Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim will all return to the lineup. Justin Braun was in protocol, but only for a day, likely the event of a false positive.

The NHL postponed Philadelphia’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. So this is there first game since Saturday’s overtime loss to the Sharks.

The Flyers will certainly welcome Giroux back to the lineup. With All-Star teams being announced this evening, he could be heading to his seventh career ASG. He’s second on the team in goals (11) and first in points (29). If he somehow doesn’t make it, or decides to opt out, Cam Atkinson could make his first appearance in a Flyers uniform. He leads the team in goals (14) and is second in points (26). He has six points in his last five games.

Carter Hart will return to the net for his 22nd game of the season. He has been one of the lone bright spots for this team. He has posted a 2.92 GAA and a .912 SV% thus far.

Projected Lineup

Farabee – Giroux – Atkinson

van Riemsdyk – Hayes – Konecny

Cates – Laughton – Lindblom

Willman – Frost – MacEwen

Provorov – Sanheim

York – Braun

Yandle – Seeler

Hart

Boston Bruins

Record: 20-11-2 (42 points, 4th in Atlantic)

Boston comes into this game on the second half of a back to back. So fatigue could play a factor but the Bruins are always a tough team to beat no matter what. They’re 7-3-0 in their last 10 games, dating back to  December 11th as they had six postponed games during that span.

But they haven’t missed a beat, especially in their last three games. They’ve out scored their opposition 17-6 in those games. Brad Marchand has had a lot to do with that as he has eight goals and nine points overall in his last four games. His last three have been multi-goal games, the most recent being a hat trick. He leads the team in all categories with 19 goals, 20 assists, and 39 points.

Matt Grzelcyk has caught fire a bit as he has six points in his last two games. He broke out for a five-point affair in the Bruins 7-3 victory over the Capitals on Monday. He scored once and had four assists.

Tuukka Rask, fresh off a new contract, will make his season debut for the Bruins. Rask’s last regular season game came on May 10th of last season where he gave up two goals on 18 shots in an overtime victory against the Islanders.

Projected Lineup

Marchand-Bergeron-Smith

Hall-Haula-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Coyle-Steen

Blidh-Nosek-Lazar


Grzelcyk-McAvoy

Reilly-Carlo

Vaakanainen-Lewington

Rask

When, Where, and How to Watch

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Where: TD Garden

TV Broadcast: ESPN

Radio Broadcast: 97.5 The Fanatic

Live Stream: Fubo TV

fuboTV has live NHL games on ESPN in which you can stream from your phone, television, and all your favorite devices. This is a service that broadcasts live TV over the internet, no cable required. Watch your favorite teams, network shows, news, and movies on 100+ channels. Plus on-demand entertainment including full TV series. fuboTV is currently available in the United States, Canada, and Spain.

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