Bruins at Flyers preview

BRUINS (27-8-11) at FLYERS (23-16-6)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, NBCSP, NESN, NHL.TV

Chara, who has played 14 of 22 NHL seasons with Boston, will become the sixth person to play 1,000 games for the Bruins, joining Ray Bourque (1,518), Johnny Bucyk (1,436), Patrice Bergeron (1,065), Don Sweeney (1,052) and Wayne Cashman (1,027).
The Bruins have won three straight games and will have Matt Grzelcyk in the lineup. The defenseman left a 3-2 overtime win against the New York Islanders on Saturday early in the first period after being slashed on the left leg.
The Flyers are 2-5-1 in their past eight games, but their .750 home points percentage (13-3-4) at Wells Fargo Center is tied with the Bruins for second in the NHL, behind the St. Louis Blues (.761). They won their season-opening game as the home team against the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2019 NHL Global Series in Prague, Czech Republic.

Players to watch

Bruins forward David Pastrnak has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in his past 13 games and leads the NHL with 35 goals.
Flyers center Sean Couturier has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games.

They said it

"I think it really comes down to loving what you do, having passion for it. You've got to have the will, sometimes going above and beyond and sacrificing, doing all these things that eventually will pay off, and believing (it will pay off). You have to accept that it's not always going to be great, you're going to have some adversity and challenges. But that's the nature of our lives no matter what you do. Once you hit those, you have that mindset that you never give up, that you always go after it. You have to love what you do." -- Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara
"Boston's been playing pretty good all year long. We know what to expect from them. If we're not ready to play they're going to take it to us." -- Flyers forward Claude Giroux

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Anders Bjork
Danton Heinen -- Charlie Coyle -- Brett Ritchie
Joakim Nordstrom -- Sean Kuraly -- Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
John Moore -- Matt Grzelcyk
Jaroslav Halak
Tuukka Rask
Scratched:Steven Kampfer, David Backes, Par Lindholm
Injured:Connor Clifton (upper body), Kevan Miller (knee)

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Kevin Hayes -- Travis Konecny
Michael Raffl -- Sean Couturier -- Jakub Voracek
James van Riemsdyk -- Scott Laughton -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Joel Farabee -- Connor Bunnaman -- Tyler Pitlick
Ivan Provorov -- Matt Niskanen
Travis Sanheim -- Philippe Myers
Robert Hagg -- Mark Friedman
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Scratched:Chris Stewart
Injured:Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder), Oskar Lindblom (Ewing's sarcoma), Justin Braun (groin), Shayne Gostisbehere (knee)

Status report

Grzelcyk took part in an optional morning skate and said turning one direction gave him some difficulty but also his leg felt better the more he moved around. ... Bunnaman was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Sunday. Forward David Kase was sent to the AHL.

Stat pack

The Bruins and Flyers will play for the 200th time in the regular season. Boston is 106-61-11 with 21 ties, Philadelphia is 72-96-10 with 21 ties. … Flyers coach Alain Vigneault is one win from tying Mike Keenan (672) for 11th in NHL history and will coach his 1,262 regular-season game, tying Jacques Lemaire for 16th.