Need to Know: Bruins at Flyers

PHILADELPHIA - The Bruins will close out their three-game road trip with another visit to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon. Boston opened the trip with a 4-2 victory against the Flyers on Monday behind Jeremy Swayman's 40-save NHL debut.
Swayman made another 31 stops on Thursday night in Boston's 4-2 win over the Capitals in Washington, earning him another start for the Black & Gold against Philly.
"I think our guys do have a little juice from seeing these young [goalies in Swayman and Daniel Vladar] go in there and perform well…of course a little bit of nerves, but for the most part just take the ball and run with it, grateful and respectful with the responses after," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, whose club has won two in a row to open up a seven-point cushion for a playoff spot.
"I think it's awesome. They're going to be great Bruins if that's the way it plays out. Just happy to help the team win. So yes, I think it has helped our group, knowing that these guys - even though they're young - are back there and can get the job done and give us a chance to win."

The 22-year-old Swayman is the first Bruins goalie to win his first two career appearances since Tuukka Rask in 2007-08. Blaine Lacher (1994-95), Bill Ranford (1985-86), Mike Moffat (1981-83), and Andre Gill (1967-68) all share the record with wins in their first three appearances.
Swayman, who has stopped 71 of 75 shots through two games, and Vladar have combined to post a 4-1-1 record in six games filling in for Tuukka Rask (upper body) and Jaroslav Halak (COVID protocols). The duo's emergence has created a welcome problem for Cassidy, who has decided to ride Swayman for a third straight start on Saturday afternoon.
With the second end of a back-to-back slated for Sunday against Washington at TD Garden, Cassidy will turn to Vladar or Rask to make the start. Rask, who took part in Friday's practice at Wells Fargo Center, will get the nod only if he is healthy. He has played just one period since suffering an injury on March 7 against New Jersey.
"We want to put the best guy in there, the guy that gives us the best chance to win," said Cassidy. "We felt at the end of the day that we couldn't go wrong, we thought both guys were playing well so we ended up going with Vladdy [initially in Pittsburgh last month].
"You can see now, I think, that's accurate. Both guys have gone in there and played well, given us a chance to win. Pleased with both. Great for the organization to have that depth going forward…right now, because we've got two guys that are unable to play that have played for years and years, given us great goaltending.
"It's nice to not be able to lose that, it's an identity of our team. We want to be hard to play against, we want to have good team defense, you need stops to do that. We've never relied on our goalie to go out and flat out win games for us but stretches of the game you've just got to be better than the other guy at times when your team's not executing well enough or what have you. They've been able to do that. both of them."

Smith Heating Up

For the past four games, Craig Smith has found himself alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron as the Bruins' top-line right wing with Cassidy opting to flip Smith and David Pastrnak, who shifted down to play with David Krejci, just about a week ago in an effort to spark some offense from his group.
The move seems to have helped. In the four games, Boston has scored 17 goals, potting at least four in three of those contests.
Smith has a goal and four assists in his last four games, including a two-point outing (goal, assist) on Thursday night in Washington. The veteran winger has 10 points over his last 10 games.
"I didn't want to disrupt anything that they've got going on," Smith said of Marchand and Bergeron. "Obviously they're two great players. I'm just getting to know them on the ice and on the bench and how they talk to each other and how they want to play. I just want to be a piece of that and use my speed, try to break up pucks. It's worked out great lately. I'm having a ball playing with them."

Lauzon Settling Back In

After missing just over a month with a fractured hand suffered in Lake Tahoe, Jeremy Lauzon expected a bit of rust in his first few games back. That turned out to be the case as the young blue liner struggled to find his game, leading to a healthy scratch last Saturday against Pittsburgh.
But since being re-inserted into the lineup on Monday night, he has looked far more like the player that impressed alongside Charlie McAvoy on Boston's top pair earlier this season.
"First couple games wasn't my best. I think my timing wasn't quite there yet, I did a couple turnovers," said Lazuon, who noted that he has some lingering soreness but the broken bone is fully healed. "But after that, just trying to reset and welcome the challenge to bounce back. Obviously, the last two games have been really good, I've felt really good on the ice."
On Tuesday, Lauzon picked up a stellar assist on Brad Marchand's shorthanded tally off a 2-on-1 break, which he said helped restore some confidence in his game. That continued on Thursday when he notched his first goal of the season while playing 25:10, including 7:32 on the kill, in Boston's win over the Capitals.
"He played more minutes [Thursday] night, played with a little more confidence," said Cassidy. "There's a little bit of work that goes into it for him. That's who he is. For him, he needs the reps, whether it's in practice, whether it's probably more live action in games, getting back in there, getting used to what's available to him. And then he'll get back up to speed. We've seen it every time he's missed some time."

By the Numbers

• David Pastrnak is four goals short of his 200th NHL goal.
• Charlie Coyle is three points shy of his 300th NHL point.
• The Bruins will visit the Flyers on Saturday in the eighth and final game between the teams this season. Boston holds a seven-point lead over Philadelphia for the final playoff spot in the East Division.
• The Bruins are 13-1-6 in their last 20 games vs. the Flyers with their lone regulation loss in that span a 4-3 road setback on Jan. 16, 2019. They have taken points out of their last five road games vs. the Flyers at 4-0-1 and they are 18-4-4 in their last 26 visits to Philadelphia.
• The Bruins are 6-0-1 in the first seven games of this season's series with a 5-4 shootout home win on Jan. 21, a 6-1 home victory on Jan. 23, a 4-3 OT road win on Feb. 3, a 2-1 road win on Feb. 5, a 7-3 home victory at Lake Tahoe on Feb. 21, a 3-2 OT loss in Boston on Monday, and the 4-2 road win on Tuesday.

Saturday's Projected Lineup

FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie - David Krejci - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - Charlie Coyle - Karson Kuhlman
Anton Blidh - Sean Kuraly - Chris Wagner
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk - Kevan Miller
Jeremy Lauzon - Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril - Steven Kampfer
GOALIES
Jeremy Swayman
Daniel Vladar