Pre-Game Skate: Bruins at Philadelphia
Matchup: Boston Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. (NESN; 98.5 FM)
Records: Boston 29-24-12, 70 points; Philadelphia 35-26-4, 74 points
Past History: The Bruins pulled off their most memorable win of the year in the Winter Classic at Fenway Park on New Year’s Day, as Mark Recchi scored with 2:18 left in regulation and Marco Sturm scored in OT for a 2-1 win. The Flyers prevailed in the previous two meetings, winning 4-3 in a shootout in the first meeting in Philadelphia on Oct. 22, and rallying with three goals in the third for a 3-1 win in Boston on Dec. 14. The Bruins still hold an 86-56-21-5 edge in the all-time series, including 37-34-10-1 at Philadelphia.
Bruins Connections: Flyers coach Peter Laviolette coached in the Bruins system, winning a Calder Cup in Providence in 1999, and served as an assistant in Boston in 2000-01.
New England Ties: Laviolette hails from Franklin, Mass. and played his college hockey at Westfield State. Goalie Brian Boucher (Woonsocket, RI) is the backup goalie, but has made just two appearances in 2010, allowing seven goals in 78 minutes. Rookie James van Riemsdyk hails from New Jersey, but he did play his college hockey at UNH. Peter Luukko, the president and chief operating officer of Flyers’ parent company Comcast-Spectacor, was born in Auburn, Mass.
Injury Update: The Flyers have lost goalie Ray Emery (hip surgery) and Mike Rathje (back/hip) for the season. The Bruins could also be without Marc Savard for the season after he suffered a Grade 2 concussion as the result of Matt Cooke’s “legal” cheap shot. Andrew Ference remains out with a groin injury, while Zdeno Chara is questionable with a lower-body injury.
Fight Card: The last meeting made fight history, with Daniel Carcillo dropping Shawn Thornton in the first regular season outdoor fight in the NHL at the Winter Classic. Thornton might like a shot at a rematch against Carcillo. The only other fight between the teams this season featured unlikely combatants Ole-Kristian Tollefesen, since traded to Detroit, and Bruins callup Trent Whitfield, but the Flyers are third in the league with 61 fights, led by Ian Laperriere (19), Carcillo (14) and Arron Asham (12), while heavyweight Riley Cote has just three fights in limited action. The Bruins have had 38 fighting majors, led by Thornton’s 17.
Matchup to Watch: Mike Richards vs. Patrice Bergeron. The former Team Canada teammates won’t be on such friendly terms in this one, as two of the top two-way centermen in the league go head-to-head. Richards is red hot, with 3-6-9 totals in his last six games. Overall, he’s 26-28-54 in 65 games, with 6-6-12 totals in 16 games against the Bruins. Bergeron scored his first goal in 14 games Thursday in Toronto, but still leads the Bruins with 40 points. He’ll need to produce now more than ever with Savard sidelined. And if the Bruins needed any more motivation against Richards, it was his hit on Florida’s David Booth that set the precedent that got Cooke off with no suspension for knocking out Savard.
Three Keys for the B’s:
1. Spread the scoring – The Bruins are without their top playmaker with Savard sidelined. They don’t have anyone capable of replacing his production, so they’ll need everyone to chip in a little more. On Tuesday, the only line that did that was the unit of Bergeron, Marco Sturm and Mark Recchi, who accounted for all three Boston goals. The Bruins need the David Krejci-Blake Wheeler-Michael Ryder and Vladimir Sobotka-Milan Lucic-Miroslav Satan lines to pull their weight as well. It won’t be easy against a Flyers team that has held 11 of their last 13 opponents to two goals or less.
2. Power outage – The Bruins remain ranked first in the league on the penalty kill (31-227, 86.3 percent), but they’ll be tested tonight by the Flyers. Philly has the third-best power play in the league (61-267, 22.8 percent), and it’s been even better of late – 10 for 27 (37 percent) in the last six games. The Bruins have kept Philadelphia 0 for 8 in the first three meetings and they’ll need to do that again, as they’re not likely to produce much on their own power play with Savard out.
3. Stick together – The Bruins still haven’t shown much in the way of heart or passion this season, an ongoing problem that’s been put in the spotlight by their lack of response to Cooke’s cheap shot on Sunday. On Tuesday, they showed they hadn’t learned anything, as Tim Thomas was repeatedly run in his crease with no Bruin ever coming to his aid. With Philadelphia always playing physical hockey, the Bruins will likely have another chance to stand up for each other when things get nasty. Let’s see if they actually do it for a change.
The Lowdown: After back-to-back losses to Pittsburgh and Toronto, things don’t get any easier for the Bruins, who continue their longest road trip of the season with a stop in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 7-1-1 in their last nine games and 11-2-0 at home in 2010. They rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third for a 3-2 win against the Islanders on Tuesday, the same night Boston was blowing three separate one-goal leads in a 4-3 overtime loss in Toronto. Since the Bruins beat Philly in the Winter Classic, Boston has gone 8-12-5. The Flyers are 16-8-1 since the clash at Fenway. So much for that dramatic overtime win giving the Bruins a boost for the second half of the season. Boston must deal with a red-hot scorer in Jeff Carter, who has nine goals in his last nine games, and an equally hot goalie in Michael Leighton, who is 7-0-1 with a 2.32 GAA in his last eight starts. Boston is in eighth place in the East, three points ahead of the Rangers, but just four points back of sixth-place Philadelphia. A win tonight would not only help them hold on to a playoff spot, but give them a chance to climb up the ranks for a better potential opening-round matchup.
Tags: Philadelphia
