The Flyers want to look like a different team Saturday in Boston, particularly later in the game.
On Thursday night, the Flyers suffered a 5-4 shootout loss to the Bruins, a defeat in which they blew a pair of third-period leads and allowed four goals on 22 shots during the final stanza.
With a chance to alleviate the sting and some of the defensive concerns, the Flyers (3-1-1) on Saturday play the second game of their two-game set against the Bruins (2-1-1).
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
"I think we're excited for the challenge to try to come into Boston and take three out of four points," Scott Laughton said Saturday morning.
Let's get into the essentials for the game:
- When: 7 p.m. ET with Flyers Pregame Live at 6 p.m. ET
- Where: TD Garden
- Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app
• A staple of the Flyers' success last season was a get-after-you forecheck that accentuated head coach Alain Vigneault's attack-oriented system.
NHL
General manager Chuck Fletcher wanted the Flyers to be tougher to play against in 2019-20 and they were.
Despite earning at least a point in four of their first five games this season, the Flyers have not looked like the same team that found its identity and surged down the 2019-20 regular-season stretch. There could be various reasons for that.
Regardless of those reasons, the Flyers know surrendering the second-most shots per game (37.4) in the league is not going to cut it.
"D-zone coverage right now," Vigneault said Saturday morning, "we're not winning enough 1-on-1 battles and not having that close support right there so that it would enable us to get that puck back and go on the attack.
"The other area that I feel we need to be stronger at is our forecheck. Our forechecking game, which enabled us to create turnovers, create scoring chances, hasn't been as effective in the offensive zone and in the neutral zone. It's something just minor little stick positioning that I think if we get better at, we'll be way more effective and that's going to help our team."
Laughton, one of the club's better forecheckers, agreed with Vigneault.
"I think we have to make it harder on teams, we're backchecking too much and putting too much pressure on our goalies and Ds to make plays," he said. "Almost waiting for it to go the other way and create offense that way."
• On the back end, the Flyers dodged what could have been another injury to a team that has already suffered plenty of them.
Mark Friedman is good to go for Saturday night after he exited Thursday night's game during the second period and didn't return. The 25-year-old defenseman was left bloodied as he was slammed to the ice on an awkward play in which he and Brad Marchand got tangled up.
Vigneault did not find the play to be dirty or malicious by Marchand.
"If it's anybody else but Marchand, I think nobody asks questions," the head coach said. "It was just a player overpowering another player. In this case, it was Marchand. He's been in these situations before and they've gone sideways a little bit. But I do think after watching it, he just was a little bit stronger than Friedman in that situation and unfortunately a little accident happened on the ice."
• Vigneault said the Flyers were sticking with the same personnel for Saturday night but that he was contemplating a small change in his forward combinations.
"I'm still debating up front," Vigneault said. "I might make one subtle, little move there, I haven't quite decided. I'm in the process of finishing some work and I'll decide before warmup."
Projected lineup
Forwards
Joel Farabee-Kevin Hayes-Jakub Voracek
Claude Giroux-Scott Laughton-James van Riemsdyk
Oskar Lindblom-Nolan Patrick-Travis Konecny
Michael Raffl-Connor Bunnaman-Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Travis Sanheim
Erik Gustafsson-Justin Braun
Robert Hagg-Mark Friedman
Goalies
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Subscribe to and rate Flyers Talk
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | YouTube