Public Skate: Bruins Vs. Flyers

With a 3 PM start, you’re getting the rare “Preview/Public Skate” combo!

Hold onto this post, it may be worth money someday.

Prior to today’s game, here are the basics:

• When: Today, 3(ish) PM
• Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena – Philadelphia, PA
• How to follow: ABC, 98.5 The Sports Hub
• Opposing perspective:Broad Street Hockey

I say “3ish” for the start time, as these ABC national games always seem to kind of just start whenever they want. 3:01, 3:12, 3:99…you decide.

The Flyers beat the Rangers in OT last time out, a 3-2 road win on Thursday.

With that win, the Flyers are still hanging around the very fringes of the Eastern Conference playoff race: they’re eight points behind the Bruins for the second wild card spot, with three teams between them and the B’s.

Similar to Thursday night’s game, the Bruins fill be facing a team attempting to chase them down in the standings, so it goes without saying that this is a pretty big game for both sides.

(I should probably stop saying that in general, as that will be the case for every game unless a team is completely out of contention. Cliches are fun though.)

One of the reasons the Flyers have been hanging around: the play of former Bruin Dan Vladar, who has been a great signing for Philly.

Vladar is 17-9-6 on the season with a 2.46 GAA and .905 save percentage. He has stumbled a bit lately though, posting a 1-3-3 record in his last seven starts.

These two teams met at TD Garden back in late January, a 6-3 win for the Bruins that saw the home team get goals from six different scorers.

Spreading the wealth, etc.

It remains to be seen if Jeremy Swayman will draw back in for the Bruins today. You could make a pretty convincing argument that Joonas Korpisalo deserves another start after Thursday’s performance, but I guess we’ll see.

Michael DiPietro was sent back to Providence on Friday, an indication that Swayman will at least be available to dress.

Other than that, not much has changed since Thursday for the black and gold.

Bruins! Flyers! On national TV!

Discuss.