Bruins look to keep Marchand and Pastrnak together.
Just the facts
When: Today, 1 PM
Where: TD Garden — Boston, Mass.
How to follow: NESN, NHLN, NBCSP, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Opposing perspective: Broad Street Hockey
Know your enemy
- 12-11-3, 27PTS, tied for 4th in Metropolitan Division
- Travis Konecny: 13G-17A-30PTS; Matvei Michkov: 9G-13A-22PTS; Travis Sanheim: 5G-10A-15PTS
- Samuel Ersson: 5-2-2, 2.70 GAA, .902 save percentage; Ivan Fedotov: 4-4-1, 3.48 GAA, .877 save percentage
Game notes
- The Boston Bruins return to play after a few days off to face the Philadelphia Flyers at the TD Garden this afternoon for the last time this season.
- The Bruins are 1-1-0 against them this year. The Flyers took the first meeting, blanking the B’s, 2-0, on Oct. 29. The Bruins then blanked the Flyers, 3-0, days later on Nov. 2.
- David Pastrnak slotted in with Marchand and Elias Lindholm on Wednesday and interim Head Coach Joe Sacco plans to keep the Pastrnak/Marchand reunion going this afternoon, he said yesterday. He talked about seeing an “instant connection.” “We’ll see where it goes moving forward,” Sacco said.
- The Bruins saw some secondary scoring in that same game and it will be a focus against the Flyers. Justin Brazeau slid down a line to help generate some offense with Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha and it worked. Sacco said he wants to see Brazeau continue to be that net-front presence and control the puck down low to generate more o-zone possession time. After yesterday’s practice, Geekie said there are three different styles of play coming together and they can all benefit from what each other brings.
- For the Flyers, Michkov has six points in his last five games on two goals and four assists. Owen Tippett has three goals in that time span. The Flyers are 3-1-1 in their last five games. They last played on Thursday, falling 7-5, to the Florida Panthers. This afternoon’s game is the first in back-to-back games this weekend.
- One day I won’t write that the Bruins’ power play is still last in the league…One day. But for now, having gone 0 for 5 on Wednesday, it’s at 11.8%.
- Injury update: Sacco said after yesterday’s practice that Hampus Lindholm is still “week-to-week.”
- After this afternoon, the Bruins hit the road for two weeks.
- And lastly, this is how the Bruins are projected to line up:
Lines
Brad Marchand – Elias Lindholm – David Pastrnak
Morgan Geekie – Pavel Zacha – Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic – Charlie Coyle – Mark Kastelic
Cole Koepke – Johnny Beecher – Marc McLaughlin
Defensive pairings
Jordan Oesterle – Charlie McAvoy
Nikita Zadorov – Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei – Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman gets the start
- See ya soon!