Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (0-3-2) are in Beantown on Saturday afternoon to play Marco Sturm's Boston Bruins (3-2-0). The Flyers are still in search of their first win of the young 2026-27 season.
Game time at TD Bank Arena is 1:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP and NHL Network.
On Thursday in Ottawa, the Flyers played their best all-around game so far this season. Puck possession and chance generation was much better than in the previous games.
However, they sustained a 2-1 regulation loss. The difference: The Flyers were unable to convert a two-man advantage in the third period. On their next power play, the Senators scored what proved to be the winning goal.
Matvei Michkov tapped in a power play goal for Philly's lone tally of the game: the team's first power play marker and Michkov's second goal of the season. Meanwhile, the team wasted a strong goaltending performance from Joseph Woll.
Boston enters this game coming off an 8-1 home route of the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. David Pastrnak (2g, 2a) and Morgan Geekie (1g, 2a) led the way offensively. Goaltender Jeremy Swayman stopped 36 of 37 shots. The biggest difference: special teams. The Bruins were 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and 3-for-4 on the power play.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Saturday afternoon.
1. Creating and finishing chances
The Flyers took an important step forward on Thursday in terms of generating scoring chances. By far, Philly had their highest quality and well as quantity of chances on Thursday. Ottawa netminder Linus Ullmark was outstanding.
However, it also needs to be said that the Flyers once again struggled to finish. They have only six goals as a team in five games.
2. Between the pipes
With the Flyers in the first game of a back-to-back set and the second match of a three-in-four, they are splitting the goaltending chores. Look for Dan Vladar to start on Saturday in Boston and Woll to go on Sunday at home against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Vladar, coming off a preseason injury, struggled in the Flyers' 7-0 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on opening night. He looked much closer to his Bobby Clarke Trophy form in the team's loss in Tampa Bay.
Overall, the Flyers have gotten sufficiently good goaltending in four of the five matches to date to stay competitive in all but the opener.
3. Special teams
The Flyers are 1-for-15 on the power play through five games. They've also allowed one shorthanded goal. On the PK, the Flyers have given up five opposing power play goals on 20 opportunities. Special teams needs to improve quickly.
The Bruins dominated Seattle on special teams last game. For Philly, even a break-even afternoon would be progress.
4. David Jiricek
The young defenseman had an encouraging game in Ottawa. He bounced back nicely from third period struggles in Tampa on Monday night.
