Flyers lines, pairs, & goalie for potential season-changing game vs. Bruins

The Philadelphia Flyers have the must-win of all must-win games today. Hell, every game the rest of the way is a must-win game if the Flyers want to make the playoffs, but this is the biggest. Not only do the Flyers need to win, they need to win in regulation.

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The Flyers fell into fifth place in the East Division after the Rangers win on Friday night. They are six points behind the Bruins, who have two games in hand.

If the Flyers win in regulation, they’ll be just four points back with a chance to get within two points on Sunday against the Sabres. If the Flyers lose, they’ll be eight points out with just 16 games to play.

Projected lines and pairs

Flyers forward lines

Alain Vigneault does not expect to make any lineup changes for Saturday afternoon’s game.

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

The Flyers have played a few strong games in a row now, including the final 50 minutes of regulation on Thursday night. Hopefully, that can carry over to today’s game.

Flyers defensive pairs

With Vigneault expecting no lineup changes, Philippe Myers will be a healthy scratch again.

Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Robert Hagg
Samuel Morin – Shayne Gostisbehere

Robert Hagg played surprisingly well in his return on Thursday night, so he’ll stick in the lineup on the second pair.

Flyers starting goalie

Brian Elliott will start today with Carter Hart starting on Sunday.

Brian Elliott
Carter Hart

Elliott made 27 saves on 29 shots in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win in Boston on Monday night. He is 1-1-0 with a .922 save percentage (59 saves on 64 shots) and 2.13 goals against average in three games (two starts) against the Bruins this season.

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

Rookie goalie Jeremy Swayman will start again for the Bruins. From our friends over at Boston Hockey Now:

“We want to put the best guy in there, the guy who gives us the best chance to win,” Cassidy said of the decision to start Jeremy Swayman again. “Good for ‘Sway’. Obviously, we wouldn’t be running him back out there if he wasn’t performing like he is — we didn’t know, had a good idea because of his résumé, but you never know till you take that next step, and so far so good.”

The Flyers and Bruins are set for a 2:00 p.m. puck drop on Saturday afternoon.

Photo Credit: Heather Barry Images