The Flyers head into Saturday afternoon still hunting that first win, and the task doesn’t get any friendlier at TD Garden.
Philadelphia is 0-3-2 after Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, a game decided by a late power-play goal. Boston, meanwhile, comes in at 3-2-0 after a 6-1 rout of the Utah Mammoth. The Bruins opened the season with two straight wins, then dropped back-to-back games to the Minnesota Wild and the Ottawa Senators before bouncing back in a big way.
Puck drop is set for 1:00 PM ET.
Here’s how the Flyers are lined up for Saturday:
Forwards
Travis Konecny - Sean Couturier - Porter Martone
Trevor Zegras - Christian Dvorak - Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster - Denver Barkey - Matvei Michkov
Michael Bunting - Noah Cates - Noel Acciari
Defensemen
Travis Sanheim - Jamie Drysdale
Cam York - David Jiricek
Nick Seeler - Simon Benoit
Goalies
Dan Vladar
Joseph Woll
Special Teams
PP1: Drysdale, Zegras, Foerster, Martone, Michkov
PP2: York, Cates, Tippett, Konecny, Barkey
PK1: Couturier, Dvorak, York, Sanheim
PK2: Cates, Foerster, Seeler, Benoit
One of the obvious eyes-on points is David Pastrnak, who has a habit of giving the Flyers problems. He already has 6 points this season, with 2 goals and 4 assists. That matters because Philadelphia has scored just 6 goals in 5 games total.
There’s also a goalie wrinkle worth watching. With Joseph Woll in Ottawa, Dan Vladar could get the start against his former team.
Boston drafted Vladar in the third round of the 2015 NHL Draft, and he was sharp against Tampa Bay on Monday. The question now is whether he can carry that over against the Bruins.
Rick Tocchet made changes ahead of Thursday’s game, and the Flyers looked better than they have at any other point this season. Because of that, the expectation is that he sticks with the same combinations against Boston. The Dvorak line is one to watch, especially with Zegras back on the wing.
The other area that seems to be settling in is on defense. The Sanheim-Drysdale pair stood out against Ottawa, and Drysdale looked like a player who deserves top-pair minutes. Unless Rasmus Ristolainen returns from injury, that duo should again handle a heavy workload.
In Other News...
Flyers Already Face A Franchise-Level Problem After Another Lopsided Loss
The early-season alarm bells keep getting louder for the Flyers, who were beaten 5-1 by the Bruins and are now off to a six-game losing streak to open the year. It is only the second time in franchise history they have started this poorly, and the latest loss looked familiar in all the wrong ways, with Boston controlling play for long stretches and Philadelphia chasing the game again.
The Flyers were without Travis Konecny, Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen, a blow to a lineup already trying to find traction. The absences have only added to the pressure on a group that has been outshot badly through six games and is struggling to generate much offense at all, leaving an increasingly uncomfortable question hanging over a start that has already gone from disappointing to historic. [Read more 🡒]
David Jiricek Just Gave The Flyers A Real Reason To Believe
David Jieks latest turn against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 8 offered the kind of all-around shift the Flyers have been waiting to see more often. He played about 18 minutes, showed up in the shot-creation department and looked comfortable enough to stay involved in key situations at both ends, a noticeable step forward from some of his earlier outings.
Jiek also found his way onto the top power-play unit, where he was part of a sequence that helped set up one of Matvei Michkovs goals. He still finished without a point, but for a Flyers team trying to sort out how much trust to place in him, the performance mattered because it suggested he can do more than just survive on the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Already Face An Early Test They Cant Afford To Fail
The Flyers first week of the season has already turned into a damage-control exercise, with a cluster of injury updates landing just before their game against Boston. Travis Konecny and Cam York are both day-to-day, Rasmus Ristolainen has been moved to injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 3, and Helge Grans is back from injured reserve, giving Philadelphia at least one bit of roster movement in the right direction.
The bigger concern is the thinning margin for error so early in the schedule. Konecny and York will miss the weekend games, and Nikita Grebenkins back surgery adds a much longer-term absence to the mix, leaving the Flyers to sort through lineup holes before they can even settle in. For a team trying to build some early stability, this is the kind of stretch that can force adjustments fast. [Read more 🡒]