There should be a different energy at the Wells Fargo Center for a multitude of reasons.
The NHL's hottest team meets the NHL's best team Tuesday night as the Flyers (41-20-7) welcome the Bruins (43-14-12).
Let's get into the essentials:
• When: 7 p.m. ET with Flyers Pregame Live at 6:30 p.m. ET
• Where: Wells Fargo Center
• Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app
• Flyers fans will be antsy and bubbling because their team can take over first place Tuesday night.
And the Flyers don't need any help to do so. With a win of any kind, they will jump the Capitals for the Metropolitan Division lead.
The Flyers enter Tuesday one point behind the first-place Capitals and five up on the third-place Penguins. If the Flyers lose after regulation to pick up a point and draw even with Washington, they'll remain in second place because of the regulation/overtime wins tiebreaker.
NHL
The Capitals are idle Tuesday night, while the Penguins visit the Devils.
Coming into the action, the Flyers, winners of nine straight, are projected to finish with 105 to 106 points and hold a 39.8 percent chance to win the division, according to Hockey-Reference.com.
• Look who's back.
Brad Marchand returns to the scene of the whiff. You can bet Flyers fans (and maybe even Gritty) will have some fun in reminding Marchand of his shootout gaffe from the Flyers' wild 6-5 win over Boston on Jan. 13 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Marchand took to Twitter the next day to ... blow off some steam?
Anyway, Marchand will surely be motivated. He comes to Philly on a 12-game point streak in which has five goals and 12 assists, while the Bruins boast an NHL-leading 98 points.
• After not playing in 24 of the Flyers' last 25 games, Shayne Gostisbehere will enter the lineup Tuesday for Philippe Myers, who is banged up after blocking a shot during last Saturday's 3-1 win over the Sabres.
It has been hard. It’s the longest part of my pro career where I’ve been pretty healthy and I’m not playing. It’s obviously pretty tough but you learn a lot about yourself. Stay positive mentally and put in a lot of work off the ice. You’ve got a lot of extra time on your hands and you have to take advantage of it.
I’m not going to go out there and try to do too much. I’m just trying to catch a ticket on the train here. I’m going to play my game, do my things that make me a special player and hopefully it contributes to a win.
- Gostisbehere on Tuesday morning
• One more notable:
Projected lineup
Forwards
Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Jakub Voracek
Joel Farabee-Kevin Hayes-Travis Konecny
Scott Laughton-Derek Grant-Tyler Pitlick
Michael Raffl-Nate Thompson-Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Matt Niskanen
Shayne Gostisbehere-Travis Sanheim
Robert Hagg-Justin Braun
Goalies
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device.
