- Seriously, how are these teams meeting for the first time in February? It's more than an annoyance -- since the Bruins and Flyers face off four times in the next seven weeks, you better believe this is going to be one of those "message" games with plenty of extracurriculars after the whistles. And when that happens between the Bruins and Flyers, you know it's going to be a long night.
- Speaking of which, this is the first time that Patrice Bergeron will face the Flyers since being run into the boards and nearly dying right in front of 20,000 people. That's your mainstream-media storyline of the day.
- The Flyers are 1-for-23 on the power play over the past four games. Oh, and those were against Atlanta, Florida, Tampa and St. Louis. Ouch.
- Martin Biron is a ridiculous 8-0-1 in his past 10 starts against Boston. Yet Biron seems to have lost his job to Antero Niittymaki. Starting only once in the past 3 weeks, Biron looks to be a permanent backup... which has lead to public speculation that he's no longer part of the Flyers' plans. Coach John Stevens has an intriguing decision tonight when he chooses a starter -- and you better believe the press is going to be reading between the lines.
- The Bruins are still quasi-healthy, missing only Marco Sturm (done for the season) to injury. Matt Hunwick is still ill and won't make the trip, but some time off might be good for the kid who's struggling to find his game. Manny Fernandez should be back on the bench.
- The Flyers have been missing Danny Briere for a while and have adjusted to his absence already. Their blue line is also dinged up, with stud Braydon Coburn and the notorious Randy Jones as day-to-day decisions.
- A great chance for a revenge game by Bruins castoffs Andrew Alberts and Glen Metropolit. There'll probably be some chatter among the players, and Metropolit would make a good shootout gamble against Tim Thomas.
Otherwise it's your typical mid-season Bruins/Flyers bloodbath.
3 comments:
Part of me was bothered that the Bs never went after Jones for last year's on ice criminal activity. It's nice to see people take the high road and all but all the same ... kinda chaps my ass.
Thanks for the linking btw, I'll make sure to list Boston Blue Line on our page.
Hey, I've enjoyed your blog so far. Happy to have it on the roll.
I'm surprised that Jones was never pursued during the games later in the season. Maybe it was settled off the ice, maybe the officials were on top of it with warnings to each team. I really hope both Patrice and Jones play tonight, so we might so some closure on the matter.
Flyers suck.
Here's to Chara or Lucic taking it to Hartnell tonight.
Go go black & gold.
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