Wrapping up their three-game season series, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (12-11-3) are on the road to take on Joe Sacco's Boston Bruins (14-11-3) in a Saturday matinee. Game time at TD Garden is 1:00 p.m. EST.
The game will be televised locally on NBCSP and nationally (subject to blackout restrictions) on NHL Network. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting this season between the Flyers and Bruins. The road team won each of the first two games. On October 29 in Boston, the Flyers prevailed 2-0 via Samuel Ersson's 23-save shutout and goals by Tyson Foerster and Joel Farabee (empty net). On Nov. 2 at Wells Fargo Center, the Bruins returned the favor with a 3-0 shutout of the Flyers.
In the latter game, Joonas Korpisalo stopped all 20 shots he faced, while Ersson (eight saves on eight shots) had to leave the game midway through the first period with a lower-body injury. Aleksei Kolosov (20 saves on 22 shots went the rest of the way).
Since that time, Ersson has struggled with a recurring lower-body issue. He returned for a portion of November but was soon sidelined again. Recently, he's been practicing with the team and working back toward a healthy return to the lineup.
This week, the Flyers were on a 4-0-1 run over their previous five games heading into Thursday's home game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. In a seesaw game that saw the Flyers recover from a 3-0 deficit to eventually take a 5-4 lead, Philly dropped a 7-5 decision.
The Bruins, meanwhile, have gotten hot since firing head coach Jim Montgomery (now the head coach of the St. Louis Blues) and promoting Sacco interim head coach. Boston is 4-1-1 over its last six games and has won each of its last three games.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game.
1. Farabee seeks redemption.
Flyers left winger Joel Farabee (three goals, six assists, nine points in 26 games) has had a frustrating season to date. Recently, he's had several high-energy performances where he's buzzed around the net and forechecked aggressively. He's also been bumped up to the Flyers' top line at 5-on-5, playing alongside team captain Sean Couturier and leading scorer Travis Konecny.
Nonetheless, Farabee has remained snakebitten offensively. Over his last 11 games, Farabee has just two points (0g, 2a) to show for his efforts. Thursday's match against the Panthers was an especially aggravating night for the 24-year-old forward.
On the positive side, Farabee had plenty of puck touches all game and logged a season-high 20:08 of ice time across 26 shifts (tying his season high for total shifts in a game). He put three shots on goal, bringing his total over his last eight games to 25 shots on goal.
Also on the encouraging end, Farabee had a primary assist on Foerster's power play goal in the second period. On the play, Matvei Michkov threaded a pass from the right boards to Farabee at the back post. Farabee directed the puck with his skate across to Foerster. The helper broke a seven-game pointless drought for Farabee.
Unfortunately, with the tied at 5-5 at 17:32 of the third period, Farabee took a penalty while defending a teammate. Florida went on to score the game-deciding goal on their ensuing power play.
Heading into the game against the Bruins, Farabee will look for a measure of redemption. Psychologically and practically, he could really use a breakout game where a puck or two goes in the net for him. The energy will be there. But the payoff needs to be there, too.
2. Tippett and Michkov finding chemistry.
The line of Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost and rookie Matvei Michkov showed considerable promise during training camp and the preseason. Once the regular season started, Tippett and especially Frost struggled. The line was soon disbanded amid serial line combination juggling.
Over the majority of the Flyers last six games, the line has been reunited. Frost went into the Florida game with four points (2g, 2a) in five games. Tippett bagged a goal against the BIues on a 2-on-1 rush off a great feed from the red-hot Michkov. Against Florida, Michkov set up Tippett for two goals in a single second-period shift as the Flyers erased a 4-2 deficit to knot the score.
The first Tippett tally against Florida -- a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle -- started with Frost losing a faceoff just outside the attacking blueline. A forechecking Tippett forced a Blues turnover in the St. Louis zone. Michkov pounced on the puck and teed up Tippett for a goal to cut a 4-2 deficit to 4-3.
The latter goal came on something of a broken play. After taking a feed from Michkov in transition, Tippett attempted to make a cross-seam pass to Frost near the net. The pass attempt was snuffed out but the puck went directly back to Tippett, who scored the tying goal.
Tippett, who had a frustrating individual afternoon against the Rangers in the Flyers Black Friday win, now has three goals over his last two games. Michkov had the primary (or lone) credited assist on all three.
3. Personnel deployment: Tortorella leaning heavily on Couturier line
In the third period of Thursday's game, Tortorella shortened the bench for lengthy stretches with the Flyers leading 5-4 after Garnet Hathaway's go-ahead goal and Florida's 4-on-4 marker that forged a 5-5 deadlock.
During the final stanza, at times, the Flyers went with two (or more accurately, two-plus) lines: the trio of Farabee, Couturier and Farabee and center Ryan Poehling's line. Noah Cates and Tippett were also mixed and matched into some combos. Michkov, Frost, and Bobby Brink spent most of the third period on the bench when play was at 5-on-5.
Actually, in each of the last three games, the Flyers have often deployed the Couturier line on a nearly every-other shift basis in crunch time.
Although the Flyers have a weekend back-to-back set (they will host Utah on Sunday) and are in the second game of a three-in-four set, they can only worry on Saturday about trying to win the game at hand. As such, it would not be surprising if Couturier's line with Konecny once again plays very heavy minutes. Tippett and/or Foerster could see time on the left wing on some shifts, spelling Farabee.
4. Flyers special teams need a big game.
Over the first eight games of the regular season, the power play supplied much of the team's goal production. Since that time, the power play has struggled. Power play coach Rocky Thompson has tweaked the first and second unit combos. Many of these issues were discussed in Thursday's edition of "5 Things".
In Thursday's game, the power play went 1-for-4. The first and third opportunities on the man advantage struggled to get organized. The fourth was scuttled by a Brink interference penalty that led to Gustav Forsling tying the game at 5-5 with the teams skating at 4-on-4 man power.
The Flyers penalty killing, a major team strength last season and through the first 10 weeks of the current season, hit a rut through the latter two weeks of November and first week of December.
Against Florida, the penalty kill had its roughest game in several years. The Panthers' scorching hot power play stung the Flyers PK for four goals on five opportunities. Getting the PK back on track against the Bruins is a top priority, as is getting back to minimizing the time spent killing penalties in the first place.
5. Behind enemy lines: Keep track of Pastrnak
Every team in the NHL goes into meetings with the Bruins with a mission to contain superstar sniper David Pastrnak. That's especially true for the Flyers, who have frequently been punished in recent years for multi-point (often multi-goal) explosions by Boston's top scorer.
In this season's first game against Boston, the 2-0 road shutout victory, Pastrnak was held quiet despite three shots on goal. A few nights later, Pastrnak was more actively involved but kept off the scoresheet until assisting on a late-game empty net goal by longtime Flyers nemesis Brad Marchand.
For the season, Pastrnak has nine goals (four on the power play), 17 assists and 26 points in 28 games. Lately, Pastrnak has shown signs of heating up again offensively. He has four points (1g, 3a) in his last three games and seven points (six via assists) over the previous five matches.
