Need to Know: Bruins at Flyers 

BOSTON ––The Boston Bruins are spending a Saturday in Philadelphia for their third game of the preseason.

The Flyers will host the Bruins at Xfinity Mobile Arena for a 5 p.m. puck drop, marking the first of two meetings between these teams ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

While Boston has skated with a more NHL-regular Group A at training camp this week, head coach Marco Sturm has a mix of veterans and young players in the lineup. Pavel Zacha will lead with his experience in the forward group during his first preseason game of the year.

“I am excited. It’s one of the games that you are excited to play. It’s been a couple of months without a game, so it will be fun to play,” Zacha said. “Especially going on the road with the guys, being on the plane and kind of getting it started for me will be great.”

While Zacha is entering his 11th NHL season, he still sees value in these exhibition matchups.

“I just think, especially this summer, it was a long summer,” Zacha said. “Just to get the game pace going again and creating some chances in the game – getting back to where I was last year and just trying to build on that.”

Now two weeks into training camp, Sturm said he wants to see more flow and automatic decision-making from his team on Saturday. Sturm has been implementing his new systems in his first year on the job, and players have been receptive to the changes.

“I am looking for just to get better and better every game. Summer hockey, it’s over,” Sturm said. “I think now slowly we want to get serious. I think everyone kind of understands now the way we want to play, the way we have to play.”

Wait, There’s More

• Hampus Lindholm will skate in his first game since Nov. 12 on Saturday. The defenseman was sidelined for the majority of last season after fracturing his patella. Lindholm played 17 games and had seven points (three goals, four assists) before the injury. He came into training camp 100% healthy.
• Riley Duran is expected to be in the lineup for the Bruins. The Woburn, Mass., native had 16 points (12 goals, four assists) in 60 games in Providence last year, and made his NHL debut in April. Duran was a sixth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
• Luke Cavallin is an option in net against the Flyers. The goaltender signed a one-year contract with the Bruins in July after being in the Montreal Canadiens’ organization. Cavallin had a 2.13 goals against average and a .929 save percentage in 32 games with the Trois-Rivieres Lions in the ECHL last season.
• Jordan Harris will be on the blueline for his second preseason game. The defenseman has been skating with Group A – composed of mostly NHL regulars – this week at training camp. Harris had an assist on Mikey Eyssimont’s first goal against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Opposing View

• Matvei Michkov is expected to be in the lineup for Philadelphia. The 20-year-old forward was the seventh overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Michkov had 63 points (26 goals, 37 assists) through 80 games in his first NHL season last year.
• The Flyers are also coming into this season with a new head coach. Rick Tocchet was announced as the 25th head coach in franchise history in May after spending three years behind the bench for the Vancouver Canucks. Tocchet played a combined 11 seasons with Philadelphia when he was in the league.
• Samuel Ersson and Carson Bjarnason will both be available in net for the Flyers. Ersson had a 3.14 GAA and .883 SV% in 47 games last season. Bjarnason, who is 20 years old, played in the Western Hockey League last year and posted a 2.23 GAA and .913 SV%.