Weekes' pluses, minuses for Bruins, Flyers

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the NBCSN Wednesday Night Rivalry game in his Weekes on the Web blog. Weekes also will assist fans with three must-watch elements of the game.

The Philadelphia Flyers have won three straight games following a three-game losing streak and are trying to get back into the Stanley Cup Playoff race. They got off to a slow start under new coach Dave Hakstol but seem to have adapted to the style of play he wants out of them.

The Boston Bruins have two wins in their past nine games and continue a five-game road trip where they're 1-1-1 so far. Boston is 12-4-3 on the road this season and hopes to get back on track against the rival Flyers.

The Bruins (21-15-5) visit the Flyers (18-15-7) at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN). Here's my breakdown of the game:

Bruins

Pluses: The play of Patrice Bergeron, especially in the absence David Krejci has been key. Krecji is their number one center, but the Bruins have the luxury of a No. 1 center in Bergeron that is slotted in the No. 2 when Krecji is there but at any time can go up to the No. 1, which is a nice luxury to have.

Bergeron is a perfect example of how coach Claude Julien wants the team to play. Responsible, intelligent, with integrity, not taking poor penalties, being positionally sound and defensively sound but still generating offensively as well. Bergeron does all of those things well. I don't think anyone else typifies a Claude Julien-type player better than Bergeron. There is such a security and comfort in knowing what you are getting from Bergeron on a shift-to-shift, night-to-night, game-to-game day-to-day basis.

Goalie Tuukka Rask has turned it around. If you look at his past 17 games, he looks more like Tuukka Rask, which is the best compliment you can give him. He was great Monday at Madison Square Garden (28 saves in a 2-1 loss). He's 9-5-3 and has allowed three goals or more only five times in 17 games.

The Bruins power play hasn't slowed down all season. The fact that it has been as good as it has for this long at the halfway point in the season is incredible. That's more than just a sample size. It's a different looking power play without Krejci there, but it's still good.

Minuses: Krejci being out since before the new year with an upper-body injury hurts them. We all know what he means to the Bruins. With Krejci and Bergeron healthy, you basically have two No. 1 centers, which is a luxury since some teams don't have one No. 1 center. The loss of Krejci, especially from a point production and puck control aspect, hurts the Bruins.

Another negative is they haven't been getting a lot of production from the bottom of their lineup, the third and fourth lines. Things haven't gone well for them as of late and sometimes they can be undisciplined. And I know for a fact that this is something that Julien preaches to them. But they can't afford to take bad penalties especially against a team like the Flyers, whose power play can sting you at any time.

Flyers

Pluses: The Flyers have gotten good goaltending from Michal Neuvirth, who has been outstanding, and from Steve Mason. You look at their combined numbers and individual numbers, they are getting good goaltending from those players.

Also, forward Sean Couturier is starting to make plays. It's one thing if he were a defenseman, but when he is getting those minutes, he needs to make plays and he is now starting to do that. In doing that, you can see an increase in his production.

It took a little while but the Flyers are starting to play better under Hakstol. They are definitely playing faster and are a little better defensively as well. He wants them to play more of an up-tempo game, not just a speed game on offense but on defense to close quicker and make reads quicker, which will help them set their coverage a lot faster as a result.

Minuses: They will be without rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere for a second straight game because of a lower-body injury. He is a game changer who changes their offense and their power play. With him in the lineup, you don't have to defend as much because you are not spending as much time in your own zone.

Forward Jakub Voracek has not gotten on track yet. He finished fourth in scoring last season with 22 goals and 81 points but has four goals and 26 points this season. I don't know how or why that is. He is such a good player, so it's a head scratcher to why he is struggling.

The Flyers are still thin on the back end. I know a lot of their prospects are defenseman but not a lot of those guys are there yet.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Who dictates the pace in this game?

2. Each team is physical and typically when these teams meet, it's physical. Will we see that?

3. Which team is more disciplined? I think the team that's more disciplined will win this game.