Flyers vs. Bruins: Projected lines, odds & trends, and three questions

The Philadelphia Flyers are looking to finish off a crucial home-and-home set with the Boston Bruins tonight. The Flyers were victorious in overtime on Monday night in Boston, bringing them one point closer to the Bruins.

GIF Rewind: Travis Sanheim wins it in overtime in massive game for Flyers

The Flyers trail the Bruins by three points in the standings, but Boston has two games in hand.

Hopefully, the momentum from Monday night’s third-period comeback and overtime winner can carry over into Tuesday night’s game.

Projected lines and pairs

Flyers forward lines

Alain Vigneault has made one minor change to the Flyers lines.

James van Riemsdyk – Sean Couturier – Joel Farabee
Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Nolan Patrick
Travis Konecny – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
Oskar Lindblom – Michael Raffl – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Oskar Lindblom is returning to the lineup in place of Tanner Laczynski.

Vigneault has been impressed with Laczynski’s game thus far but wants to get a fresh Lindblom back into the lineup.

Flyers defensive pairs

The Flyers have played better defensively recently and are going with the same pairs tonight.

Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Philippe Myers
Samuel Morin – Shayne Gostisbehere

Robert Hagg is likely a few days away from returning, according to Vigneault. It’ll be interesting to see what the Flyers do with their defensive pairs once he’s healthy.

Flyers starting goalie

Carter Hart is back between the pipes.

Carter Hart
Brian Elliott

Brian Elliott put up a solid performance to get the overtime win on Monday night. Hopefully, Hart can follow up his best game in quite some time on Saturday night with another one against the Bruins.

Follow us on Twitter (@PhillyHockeyNow) and keep an eye out for lineup updates as we get closer to game time.

Betting odds and trends

via Covers

• The Flyers are +115 underdogs as they host the Bruins (-135). The total is set at 5.5 goals.

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Bruins trends

• 4-0 in their last 4 after scoring 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• 4-1 in their last 5 in the second game of a home-and-home situation.
• 2-5 in their last 7 games as a road favorite.
• 1-6 in their last 7 games playing on 0 days rest.

Flyers trends

• 6-2 in their last 8 in the second game of a home-and-home situation.
• 1-6 in their last 7 games following a win
• 1-4 in their last 5 in the third game of a 3-in-4 situation.

Head-to-head trends

• Bruins are 5-1 in the last 6 meetings.
• Favorite is 5-1 in the last 6 meetings.
• Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

What to watch for

1. Can they sweep the home-and-home?

The Flyers have looked like a different team since their two days off late last week. They played a solid game against the Islanders in a shootout loss on Saturday and pulled out the overtime win last night.

‘We needed this win’: Flyers’ strong effort sets up chance to sweep home-and-home set

Monday night’s win won’t matter as much if the Flyers can’t get at least a point tonight, with a regulation win being huge for the standings. Last night’s effort set up a chance to sweep the home-and-home set.

This is quite possibly the Flyers’ last realistic chance to make a playoff push. There are also just six days until the trade deadline and these next few games will go a long way in determining what Chuck Fletcher will do.

2. Is Carter Hart back?

Like the Flyers, Carter Hart looked like a different player –– and person –– on Saturday night. Even though it was a shootout loss, the Flyers wouldn’t have earned a point without Hart’s play in net. He was tracking the puck well and making saves with confidence.

It’s possible that Hart is back on his game. One game can’t decide that, however, but it can be a building block for him. Tonight is a chance for Hart to show that he is back on top of his game.

3. Can they take advantage of a rookie goalie?

The Flyers won’t have the only 22-year-old goalie between the pipes tonight. Bruins rookie Jeremy Swayman will make his first NHL start tonight.

From our friends over at Boston Hockey Now:

“With both Jaro Halak (COVID Protocol) and Tuukka Rask (lower-back) out of the lineup, fellow Boston Bruins rookie goaltender Dan Vladar started Monday night and Swayman backed him up. The 23-year-old Vladar was solid again, making 29 saves but it wasn’t enough as the Bruins blew a late 2-1 lead and lost 3-2 in overtime. Now the 22-year-old Swayman will get his shot after shining with the Providence Bruins this season and going 8-1-0 with a 1.89 GAA and .933 save percentage in his first nine professional starts in the AHL.”

It’s a huge home-and-home set and the Flyers are shooting on a rookie making his debut with a chance to sweep it. They need to take advantage.

The Flyers and Bruins are set for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop on Tuesday night.

Photo Credit: Heather Barry Images