You know what they say about no rest for the wicked. The Boston Bruins are staying at home while they attempt to continue their winning ways. The Bruins (15-3-3) will be taking on the Philadelphia Flyers(11-13-1). Claude Julien summed up his feelings about the game yesterday. “We’ve always taken them extremely seriously, as far as knowing that we’ve always had to be at our best to beat them,” Julien said. “There have been some interesting games. Both teams don’t mind playing each other because there’s not necessarily a rivalry that we have against some other teams, but there’s certainly something there that makes these two teams a good matchup.”
“It’s a team we always have good games against,” Julien also remarked. “It’s a team that matches up well against us. They’ve got pretty good skill, but they’ve always been a pretty gritty team. They’ve had their ups and downs this year.” While we’ve had mostly ups it’s a chance for one Bruin in particular to gain a little personal vindication.
Bruins’ goalie Tuukka Rask has had a turbulant past against the Flyers. The last time Rask faced the Flyers was during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. Rask was the net minder when Boston started out with a 3-0 series lead, but then lost the next four games to be taken out of the series. Tuukka has had a decent year so far. His record (11-2-3) places him second in the league for wins, and the rest of his stats are (Sv% .923 – 8th , GAA 2.09 – 7th) in the top ten.
While the win/loss column for these teams look different, both teams are in the heavy physical play. Philadelphia is 83% on the penalty kill, and Boston is 91% (best in the league). The other identical factor these teams share is the ability to suddenly not play to their strengths. Boston’s two game losing streak occured when they stopped playing to their system. The Flyers blew a three-goal lead against the Penguins in Thursday’s 5-4 defeat.
We’ve got two tough teams who want to win, and will battle hard to do it. The puck drops at