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Flyers at Bruins: Home Opener, Preview & Lineups

By Scott Roche

TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 01: Matt Niskanen #15 of the Philadelphia Flyers is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal against the New York Islanders during the third period in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on September 01, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 01: Matt Niskanen #15 of the Philadelphia Flyers is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal against the New York Islanders during the third period in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on September 01, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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For the first time in over 10 months, the Boston Bruins will play a game at the TD Garden tonight. The last time the Bruins skated in a game at home was March 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 5-3 loss, five days before the season was paused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bruins return home for the home opener in an empty TD Garden against the Philadelphia Flyers following a 1-1-1 season-opening three-game road trip against the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders.

Boston is hoping that finally getting home will help change their fortunes 5-no-5. You don’t need to be reminded that through the first nine periods of regulation, they have yet to score even strength. Even though two overtimes, they have been outscored 1-0.

The Bruins have had two full days off to rest bumps and bruises they endured in the first three games and they hope to build off of their effort in Monday’s 1-0 loss to the Islanders. Despite losing, they outshot the Isles 27-17, but came away frustrated by goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Bruins dodged injury to Grzelcyk

Early in the third period, defensemen Matt Grzelcyk collided with the Islanders Jordan Eberle and left the game with an upper-body injury. He was clearly in pain, but Grzelcyk was able to practice yesterday and is on schedule to play tonight. That would have been a big blow to the blue line in so many different ways for the Bruins.

Ondrej Kase will miss a second straight game and coach Bruce Cassidy said in Wednesday’s media session that he did not know when he would return. Aside from Kase, it appears that there will be no major lineup changes against the Flyers.

Here is the Bruins projected lineup for tonight:

Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk

Ritchie-Krejci-Studnicka

Bjork-Coyle-Smith

Frederic-Kuraly-Wagner

Lauzon-McAvoy

Grzelcyk-Carlo

Zboril-Miller

Rask

Halak

Philadelphia comes in winning three of their first four games at home. They swept the first two games from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but had to settle for a split with the Buffalo Sabres. In their three wins, Philly outscored Pittsburgh and Buffalo 14-5. Offensively, Travis Konecny leads the way with four goals and two assists, while goalie Carter Hart is 2-1 with a 3.66 GAA and a .899 SV%.

The Flyers are dealing with their own injuries as center Morgan Frost was placed on injured reserve (IR) after Tuesday’s win over the Sabres, while Sean Couturier is out until the end of the month with a rib injury. Defensemen Philippe Myers is also out with a rib injury.

Here is the projected Flyers lineup tonight:

Giroux-Hayes-Fababee

Lindblom-Patrick-Konecny

Van Riemsdyk-Laughton-Voracek

Provorov-Sanheim

Gustafsson-Braun

Hagg-Friedman

Hart

Elliott

Game Information

Date: 1/21

Time: 7 p.m.

Where: TD Garden

TV: NESN

Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Next. How Long Can the Bruins Survive Without Pastrnak?. dark

It has been a long time coming watching the Bruins play at the TD Garden and after nearly a year, the wait ends tonight.

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