Fresh off Saturday’s wild 7-5 come-from-behind victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins face a big week of games beginning tonight. Three of the Bruins’ four games this week are their final three games of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers, who are currently tied with the New York Rangers for fifth place, four points behind Boston.
After Saturday’s win, the Bruins got two helpful results Saturday night with the Flyers and Rangers both losing shootouts, which allowed the Black and Gold to gain in point in the East Division standings in the race for the final postseason berth. The Flyers lost to the New York Islanders in a shootout, while the Buffalo Sabres rallied late in the third period to force overtime against the Rangers, before pulling out a shootout win themselves.
The biggest reason for the Bruins’ four-point lead over Philadelphia in the standings is because they are a perfect 5-for-5 against them. They have won three of the five games in regulation, one in a shootout and one in overtime. That’s a 10-2 advantage in points in the standings.
These three games this week against the Flyers could go a long way in either improving Boston’s playoff chances or causing a log jam in the standings that could cause an intense month of games. It also will help to point general manager Don Sweeney which way he may need to go by next Monday’s trade deadline at 3 p.m.
During their current seven-game homestand, Boston is 3-2-1, which considering the opponents, could be seen as a little disappointment. Their goal differential during the homestand is even, as they have given up 19 goals and scored 19 goals, not including their two shootouts against the Islanders and Devils.
Philadelphia comes into tonight’s game giving up the most goals this season of the eight teams in the division with a whopping 132 and has a staggering goal differential of minus-23. The Bruins have allowed the least amount of goals with just 86 surrendered. Boston has scored the third least amount of goals with just 96, which includes the seven on Saturday.
Coach Bruce Cassidy’s line shift with the top-six forwards pay dividends Saturday with the two top lines accounting for all seven of the Bruins’ goals. Brad Marchand finished with three and David Pastrnak had two. Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci also scored.
The newly created line of Marchand-Bergeron-Smith and Nick Ritchie-Krejci-Pastrnak should be rolled out again tonight and hope that they are able to find the back of the net against Philly goalie Carter Hart.
Three games in six days against the Flyers with six huge points available for both teams. The Bruins have a chance to give themselves some breathing room in the standings with games in hand on both the Flyers and Rangers.
The push for the postseason continues tonight at the TD Garden, before the final two games in Philadelphia tomorrow night and Saturday afternoon. Buckle up!