The Bruins are on the road again, playing the Philadelphia Phlyers.
[I was tempted by April Fools Day to post a prank, but I am also just religious enough to be offended by the thought of a mean-spirited prank on Easter Sunday, so to any of you celebrants out there, have a happy Easter, and I’ll leave it at that. -IW]
When last we left our intrepid heroes,…
they met the Florida Panthers, and embarrassed them by a score of 5-1 at the TD garden, including a beat-down of Panthers troublemaker Michael Haley at the hands of Adam McQuaid
Adam McQuaid goes to work on Micheal Haley’s face pic.twitter.com/LrlW5bPEbt
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 31, 2018
However, there were a few areas of concern. First, Torey Krug fired a puck from the point into Riley Nash’s ear, causing Nash to leave the game. Then David Krejci was skating uncomfortably and went down the tunnel – but he would emerge later in the game. And late in the game, Brandon Carlo stumbled and fell, twisting his ankle painfully and bending his knee awkwardly. He would be removed from the ice on a gurney with trainer Don DelNegro stabilizing Carlo’s ankle with his hands.
Brandon Carlo lands awkwardly on his left ankle and gets stretchered off the ice pic.twitter.com/lcISiyxbW2
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 31, 2018
Carlo reportedly has broken his left fibula (not confirmed), which would seem to finish his hockey until next season. Riley Nash has a head covered in fresh stitches.
The Bruins leaped into the #1 spot in the division on Thursday night, but Tampa Bay had a Friday game against the Rangers, bitch-slapping them 5-1, and jumping to a 1 standings-point & 1 ROW lead over the Bruins. But now the Bruins have reestablished the division lead by 1 point with a game in hand. The Boys in Black have one more game vs Tampa this season. Tampa also plays Nashville on Sunday.
The Bruins remain 2 points behind the league-leading Nashville Predators with even number of games played, and 5 games remaining. Chara and McAvoy are both skating again, and are traveling on the road trip, but only Chara is expected in the lineup today. Rick Nash reportedly still is not skating nor is Sean Kuraly, who also has an upper body injury.
Neither Rick & Riley Nash nor Seak Kuraly or Brandon Carlo will travel to Philly. Note that the P-Bruins are in Pittsburgh, in case the need to call up Paul Postma or Jordan Szwarz arises.
The Phlyers are currently philling out the phirst wildcard spot in the Eastern conference.
They had a great mid-season run, but have started to fall back to earth a little, winning only 5 of their last 10 games, against a fairly strong set of opponents. Goaltenders Brian Elliott and now Michael Neuvirth are both unavailable due to injury. Leading scorers are Claude Girouix at 27-66-93pts, Jakub Vorachek at 19-61-80 points & Sean Couturier at 31-40-71 points
Let’s do some lines.
After all the work I did to suss out the lines, @NHLBruins just tweeted out this Cassidy presser (fortunately it validated my guesswork).
#NHLBruins injury updates from Bruce Cassidy:
Carlo: Out, lots of swelling, no definitive answers on extent of the injury
Riley Nash: Out, received 40+ stitches to ear/head. Could join team in Florida
Chara: Will return today against PHI
McAvoy: Out, possible for Tuesday pic.twitter.com/8hQRjsOwbc
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 1, 2018
| Bruins Forward Lines | ||
|---|---|---|
 Brad Marchand |
 Patrice Bergeron |
 David Pastrnak |
 Jake DeBrusk |
 David Krejci |
 Ryan Donato |
 Danton Heinen |
 David Backes |
 Brian Gionta |
 Tim Schaller |
 Noel Acciari |
 Tommy Wingels |
| Bruins Defensive pairs | ||
 Zdeno Chara |
 Nick Holden |
|
 Torey Krug |
 Adam McQuaid |
|
 Matt Grzelcyk/Tommy Cross |
 Kevan Miller |
|
| Bruins Goaltending | ||
| Tuukka Rask | (Anton Khudobin) |
The Flyers have juggled their lines a little bit, but fortunately they still have Radko Gudas so something stupid can happen.
Flyers Forwards
Claude Giroux — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom — Nolan Patrick — Jakub Voracek
Jordan Weal — Valtteri Filppula — Wayne Simmonds
Jori Lehtera — Scott Laughton — Matt Read
Flyers Defense
Ivan Provorov –Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim — Andrew MacDonals
Brandon Manning — Radko Gudas
Flyers Goaltending
Petr Mrazek
Alex Lyon
Officiating roster.
(H/T Scouting the Refs):
Referees
Linesmen
Bleh. Important point though. Doesn’t that mean Tampa don’t go ahead of us even if thy win today?
Its 110-108 with 46 ROW each, so a non-shootout win would flip TBL back into first on the tiebreaker
It’s probably all moot until after tues head-to-head anyway
Oh crap, forgot that Bruins still have a game in hand, so would retain 1st place.
OMG THIS TEAM!
And Bergy gets his 30th, right?
That replay!
HA!
It was supposed to be a pass to be redirected by the guy in the crease, but Shaller(?) was being held by a Flyer in the crease,, yet a 2nd Flyer tried to block the shot and it goes in off his skate!
Is Wingels being punished for something? Radio announcer has noticed he’s on the bench but not playing
Not sure. I’ve seen Gionta skating in a spot where Wingels should be.
Pasta!
Streak! (not going to look for a streaker gif as I’m in the office
)
We’ll just all search for it in our minds instead.
Bad giveaway is bad.
WTF.
Flyers 3rd period goal difference = +7
Bruins 3rd period goal differential= +38
STOP CHECKING YOUR OWN TEAMMATES!
Specify your ‘crushing’ demands better then!
HEY BRUINS, CRUSH THE FLYERS NOT EACH OTHER!
YES COMMENCE CRUSHING TIME!
Is the ice finally starting to tilt?
*crosses fingers*