Boston Bruins

Game 2: Boston Bruins @ Philadelphia Flyers Lines, Preview

Published

2 years ago

October 20, 2021

After starting things out in winning fashion, the Boston Bruins will finally play their second game of the regular season more than a week into the regular season. It’s been a slow start to the B’s schedule, but things are about to pick up for them with a two-game road trip through Philly and Buffalo that begins on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Bruins will kick off the road trip against the Flyers (7:38 PM ET, TNT) with a nationally televised 7:30 pm start.

It’s a familiar spot for the Bruins as they were just at the Wells Fargo Center a couple of weeks ago for one of their final exhibition games where Swayman was sensational leading a young Boston Bruins lineup in an overtime loss. The Boston Bruins will be hoping for a different result, but with the same rookie goaltender that stood on his head in Philly that night against most of the usual NHL lineup for the Broad Street Bullies.

Boston Bruins Notes

–Rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman will get his second straight start after become the first rookie goalie to start on opening night for the Bruins since Blaine Lacher in 1995. Lacher went on to be a Calder Trophy finalist but hall of famer Peter Forsberg was voted as rookie of the year. Swayman is still considered a rookie because he played just 10 games last season. A player must play 25 games or more for a season to count as one for him. Swayman stopped 27-of-28 shots in an excellent opening win for the Bruins on Saturday night against the Dallas Stars.

– After scoring just five goals and struggling last season, Jake DeBrusk built on a strong preseason by scoring the game-winner last weekend against the Stars while buzzing around the front of the net. DeBrusk finished with four shot attempts and said attacking the net is becoming more of a focus for him this season.

“It’s definitely a focus. That’s where I’ve scored all my goals throughout my career and even my life,” said DeBrusk, who has potted 68 of them in his five season NHL career. “I’m good in front of the net. Obviously, a lot of the right things have to happen and you need some bounces as well, but I’ve just been trying to force the issue of trying to get there. Not necessarily just stand in front of the net, but [to also] push the pace to attack. It’s all about an attack mentality right now.”

– Forward Curtis Lazar is the lone injured player and on injured reserve with an upper-body injury suffered midway through training camp. The Bruins said this week that Lazar won’t require surgery for the injury, but that he’s still considered “week-to-week” with the issue suffered during the preseason.

Philadelphia Flyers Notes

– The Flyers are off to a 1-0-1 start after dropping a shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks on opening night, and then playing a much tighter game in a 6-1 win over the Seattle Kraken. Joel Farabee is off to a hot start with two goals and five points in the first two games of the season for the Flyers, and Travis Konecny has potted a pair of goals for Philly as well. Claude Giroux also has two goals for the Flyers in the first two games.

-After struggling last season, Carter Hart is off to a better start this season with a .921 save percentage and a 2.43 goals against average in his first two starts of the season. Part of the reason the Bruins have tried to bring Swayman along slowly in Boston is after watching Hart struggle a bit with the sophomore slump in Philly last season. Despite the talk about Hart, backup Martin Jones will be making his season debut for the Flyers against the Bruins on Wednesday night.

-Zack Macewan and Rasmus Ristolainen will make their season debuts for the Flyers tonight against the Bruins, a pair of additions that will bring a little more grit to the Philly lineup.

“They are good to go,” said Alain Vigneault. “I want us to play well. We’re playing against a good team. We’re going to have to play better than they do. They have one of the best lines in hockey in quite some years and they’re a team that plays very well defensively. We’re going to have to work extremely hard to generate offense. I think our whole group right now is excited about the challenge in front of us.”

Hear from Head Coach Alain Vigneault ahead of tonight’s 7:30PM tilt with Boston. #BOSvsPHI | #BringItToBroad https://t.co/kH8BpPtpOp

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 20, 2021