Bruins bid to strengthen grasp on playoff spot at Flyers’ expense
The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers are experiencing the Eastern Conference wild-card race from very different perspectives.
In either case, both teams are hungry for a win Sunday afternoon when the Bruins visit the Flyers in a late-season clash.
Boston (43-26-8, 94 points) currently sits atop the East wild-card standings with five games remaining. There is a four-way tie for the second and final wild-card spot that includes Philadelphia (38-26-12, 88 points), with all four teams having five or six games to play.
"It's awesome. It's the best time of the year, just trying to make the playoffs and just the playoff push," Flyers rookie Alex Bump said. "It's the best time of the year. It's fun hockey. It's kind of the situation you want to be in."
Bump was in a good mood Friday after Philadelphia notched a 4-1 road victory over the New York Islanders, who sit one point ahead of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The top three teams in each division earn automatic playoff spots.
Bump joined defenseman Travis Sanheim with a goal and an assist against the Islanders, while Matvei Michkov had one and two, respectively. The Flyers had lost their previous two games -- both against wild-card contenders -- and desperately needed a crisp performance on Long Island.
"Obviously, a lot of resilience from our team," Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. "(We've played) three in four, four in six. I just love the energy, especially early. It's a tough building to come into and they had a couple of days' rest. ... Everyone contributed tonight."
Dan Vladar made 21 saves as the Flyers avoided their first three-game losing streak since late January.
"The guys played an unbelievable game today," Vladar said.
The Flyers have a day of rest heading into Sunday's affair, while the Bruins are facing a challenging back-to-back after losing 3-1 at Tampa Bay on Saturday. The Bruins led 1-0 in the third period before the Lightning scored three times to drop Boston to 0-2-0 on its four-game road trip.
"We played a pretty good game. We really did," Boston coach Marco Sturm said.
Casey Mittelstadt scored the only goal for the Bruins, while Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves on 22 shots.
"I thought we had a lot of positives for our group. Sometimes you don't get the results," said Swayman, who has allowed three goals or fewer in each of his last nine starts. "Our team shouldn't be hanging their heads. A lot of great things came out of tonight's game and that's what we should be focused on."
The Bruins have one of the top-10 power-play units in the NHL but went 0-for-4 with the man advantage against Tampa Bay. They also failed to score with the extra skater (0-for-2) in Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.
"We had a few chances, even in the first, but I also thought the power play needed to step up," Sturm said. "It didn't really give us a whole lot of Grade-A chances. We were fine, though. We were still good enough today. But those little details, they matter, and those details have been hurting us for two games in a row."
This is the third and final meeting this season between Philadelphia and Boston. The Bruins defeated the Flyers 6-3 on Jan. 29 before Philadelphia returned the favor with a 3-1 home victory on Feb. 28.