Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (38-26-12) are home on Sunday for a crucial clash with Marco Sturm's Boston Bruins (43-26-8). This is the third and final meeting of the season between the longtime rivals. The Flyers are 1-1-0 over the first two games against Boston this season.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 3:30 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised locally on NBCSP and nationally on TNT, TRUTV and HBOMAX
The Flyers enter this game coming off a rousing 4-1 road win over the New York Islanders. Matvei Michkov led the way offensively with a goal (17th) and two assists. Philly also got tallies from Owen Tippett (28th), Alex Bump (4th) and Travis Sanheim (10th). Dan Vladar made 20 saves for the victory.
On Saturday, the Flyers were one of only two NHL teams idle on the schedule. Philly got help on the scoreboard with the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders all losing in regulation.
Nevertheless, the Flyers need to focus only on taking care of their own business. In the push for third place in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers (88 points, 24 regulation wins) still trail the Islanders (89 points, 28 RW) but hold two games in hand.
The Bruins (94 points) hold the upper wildcard spot. In the push for the lower wildcard berth, the Flyers are in a standings points tie with Ottawa (88 points, 33 RW), Detroit (88 points, 29 RW) and Columbus (88 points, 27 RW). The Flyers hold one game in hand on the Blue Jackets but have played the same number to date as the Senators and Red Wings.
Boston is coming off a 3-1 road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Casey Mittelstadt (15th) broke a scoreless deadlock in the second period. However, Tampa rallied for three unanswered goals in the third period. Jeremy Swayman stopped 20 of 22 shots in a losing cause before the Lightning tacked on an empty net tally.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Sunday.
1. First period
When taking a lead to the first intermission, the Flyers have a 17-1-3 record. Trailing after the opening 20 minutes, Philly is 8-17-5.
On the Boston side, the Bruins are 19-3-5 when leading at the end of the first period. When trailing, the Bruins are 6-14-1.
2. Tippett goes for career goal high
Entering Sunday's game, Tippett has tied his single-season career high for goals. With 50 points, he's three away from matching his career high (2023-24). Over his last five games, Tippett has racked up five goals and two assists. In 12 career matches to date against Boston, he has nine points (3g, 6a).
Tippett's line with Tyson Foerster and Trevor Zegras has been very effective in their short time together. However, in the first period of Friday's game, Zegras was shaken up on a hit by the Islanders' Adam Pelech. Zegras returned for the start of the second period but played sparingly the rest of the game.
3. Between the pipes
With the Bruins in the second half of a back-to-back set, look for Joonas Korpisalo (13-9-4, 3.27 GAA, .889 SV) to get the start on Sunday.
With the Flyers having had a day off on Saturday and having split the work on their back-to-back on Thursday and Friday, Dan Vladar (25-13-7, 2.47 GAA, .905 SV%) could make his 47th start of the season.
4. Stay out of the penalty box
The Flyers went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill in Elmont on Friday. Nevertheless, the PK has been a struggle more often than not lately. Since March 1, the Flyers are just 72.5 percent on the penalty kill (28th in the NHL in that span). Overall, the Flyers are tied for 20th in the NHL at 78.3 percent.
Boston has had power play struggles since March 1 (15.5 percent) but they are 23.4 percent overall (9th in the NHL). The Boston penalty kill ranks 26th at 76.5 percent success.
When on the power play, the Bruins don't throw a lot of surprises at the opposition. The main objective remains to get the puck on David Pastrnak's stick. Thirty-two of Pastrnak's 96 points this season have come on the power play (10 power play goals, 22 power play assists). Meanwhile, 12 of Morgan Geekie's team-high 34 goals have been power play tallies.
For the Philly power play, it will take some work not to finish last in the NHL. Coming into Saturday's games in the NHL, the 31st ranked team was Calgary at 16.4 percent. Philly's 15.1 percent ranks 32nd.
