B’s face red-hot Flyers tonight
Philadelphia has won nine straight games
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy wouldn’t classify the Philadelphia Flyers as “resurgent” but recognizes them as the NHL’s hottest team.
Philadelphia has won nine straight games to move into a first play tie with the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division.
The Flyers (41-20-7) will look to extend their win streak to double digits on Tuesday night when the Atlantic Division leading Bruins (43-14-12) invade the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers are 2-0 against the Bruins this season.
“They were good the last time we saw them and they were good early on in here this year,” said Cassidy following Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton.
“They are a good hockey club that just happened to piece together a lot of wins and all of a sudden they are a first-place team in the Metro. Some of that is the teams around them and they just upped their game.”
Flyers coach Alain Vigneault employs a balanced attack with four 20 plus goal scorers; Travis Konecny (24-37-81), Sean Couturier (22-37-59), veteran Claude Giroux (21-3253) and former Boston College center Kevin Hayes (23-18-41).
Left wing James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers first round pick (2nd overall) out of New Hampshire in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, has 19 goals and 21 assists.
“They have balanced scoring and they have mixed up their lines a little bit,” said Cassidy. “They played through some injuries and some adversity and good for them.
“They are well coached and they always have good players. It will be a good challenge for us.”
The Flyers have gotten significant scoring on the back end from Ivan Provorov (13-23-36), Matt Niskanen (8-25-33) and Travis Sanheim (8-17-25).
Vigneault rotates goalies Carter Hart (24-12-3) and Brian Elliott (16-7-4) similar to the way Cassidy uses Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak.
“I don’t think there is a magic formula there, they are playing better D and they have since the start of the year,” said Cassidy. “They are defending better and the goaltenders have a good rotation at home and on the road so they are getting good starts out of them.”
The Bruins recently completed a Sunshine State sweep with close wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.
The Lightning returned the favor with a 5-3 victory on Saturday night at the TD Garden.
The Flyers have the best home record in the NHL at 25-5-4. Philadelphia has the fourth best home penalty kill with an 86.1% success rate.
The Flyers home power play is 14th with 34 tallies in 115 attempts.
“They are a great team on a roll,” said Bruins center Patrice Bergeron. “It’s going to be a tough game and its never easy to play in that building.
“They have balanced lines and they seem to be paying well defensively of late. So, we are in for a good one and I’m excited for it.”