Flyers and Bruins set for Game 1

By Dan Di Sciullo

After pulling off a historic comeback against the Bruins in last year's Eastern Conference semifinals, the Philadelphia Flyers will try to take an early lead today when they host Boston in Game 1 of this second-round set.

The Flyers became just the third team in NHL history to win a series after falling behind three-games-to-none when they ousted Boston in seven games during last year's East semis. Not only did Philadelphia rip off four straight victories to claim the series, it also overcame a 3-0 deficit in the opening period of Game 7 and won the decisive test in Boston by a 4-3 score.

Philadelphia was a seventh seed last year when it pulled off the amazing comeback and the Flyers went on to win the Eastern Conference title before losing in six games to Chicago in the Stanley Cup Finals. This year, the Flyers are a second seed and entered the postseason as Atlantic Division champions.

Boston has also improved its seeding from a year ago, as the Bruins were a sixth seed in 2010, but gained the third spot in the East after winning the Northeast Division.

Philadelphia earned a modest comeback in the opening round of this year's playoffs, taking the final two tests against Buffalo to bounce back from a 3-2 deficit in the series.

Like Philly, the Bruins had to go seven games in the first round to set up this rematch. Boston's playoff run did not get off to a good start, as the Bruins lost the first two games of the conference quarterfinals against Montreal on home ice. However, Claude Julien's club rebounded to win four of the next five games and Boston won a series after trailing 2-0 for the first time in franchise history.

This is the sixth all-time postseason encounter between the Flyers and Bruins. Philadelphia has won three of those series and last year's meeting was the first playoff battle between the clubs since 1978.

Goaltenders Sergei Bobrovsky, Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton all started games in the Buffalo series, as the Flyers became the first team in 23 years to win a playoff series while starting three different netminders. The 1988 Detroit Red Wings were the last team to pull off the feat, as Greg Stefan, Glen Hanlon and Sam St. Laurent each started games in the first round against Los Angeles.

Boucher enters this round as the club's starting goaltender, but with the way the first round went one wouldn't think he has a strangle-hold on that job. Boucher wound up seeing time in six games during Round 1 and he started Games 3, 4, 5 and 7. He was also the recipient of all the victories in the series and finished the set with a 2.10 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.

Outside of Game 5, when Boucher surrendered a couple of fluky goals and was pulled after stopping just 8-of-11 shots, the 34-year-old veteran had a solid series. He stopped 50-of-53 shots in Games 6 and 7 combined.

The Flyers have tried to offset their lack of security in goal by putting together a deep defensive corps. The group is led by Chris Pronger and also features Kimmo Timonen, Andrej Meszaros, Matt Carle, Braydon Coburn and Sean O'Donnell. Meszaros and O'Donnell were not on the club last year when they posted the historic comeback against the Bruins.

Pronger missed the first five games of the opening round while recovering from a broken right hand that also caused him to miss the last 16 tests of the regular season. The former Hart and Norris Trophy winner was only used in power-play situations in Game 6, but he notched an assist and skated for 17 minutes, 27 seconds in the decisive seventh game.

Pronger had two goals and four assists in last year's conference semifinal series against Boston.

Danny Briere is a player to watch on offense for the Flyers. He scored six goals in the opening round, including two in Game 7, and had five goals and five assists in last year's series against Boston.

Briere has 94 points (41g, 53a) in 93 career playoff games.

Claude Giroux was Philadelphia's leading scorer in Round 1, notching nine points on one goal and eight assists.

The Flyers are hoping to get Jeff Carter back at some point in this series, but he is expected to miss Game 1. Carter, who led Philly with 36 goals in the regular season, suffered a sprained right MCL in Game 4 of the Buffalo series and hasn't played since.

The Flyers scored five times on the power play in the first round, but that was over 35 chances. Philadelphia did go 3-for-9 with the man advantage over Games 6 and 7.

Philadelphia also has room for improvement on the penalty kill after surrendering seven goals on Buffalo's 31 chances with the man advantage.

Boston has a handful of new faces on its roster this year, but the biggest change could be the resurgence of a player who was on the active roster when the Flyers and Bruins met last year. That player is goaltender Tim Thomas, who is back in form after somewhat of a lost season in 2009-10.

After winning the Vezina Trophy for the 2008-09 season, Thomas lost his starting job to Tuukka Rask during the following regular season. Rask wound up seeing all the time in the playoffs, starting all 13 games. He did an admirable job, going 7-6 with a 2.61 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.

This year, Thomas, who was bothered by a hip injury in 2009-10, has regained his swagger and picked up another nomination for the Vezina Trophy after going 35-11-7 with nine shutouts and a sparkling 2.00 GAA. The 38-year-old also set an NHL record with a .938 save percentage, beating former Buffalo netminder Dominik Hasek's mark of .937 from the 1998-99 campaign.

Thomas had a solid showing in the opening round against the Habs, recording a 2.25 GAA and a .926 save percentage over the seven games.

Of course, Thomas has one of the league's most feared defensemen playing in front of him in Zdeno Chara, the 6-foot-9 Slovakian with the hardest slap shot in the world. Chara won the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman in 2009 and he is a finalist for the award this year after posting 14 goals, 44 points and a plus-33 rating this season.

While Boston excels at making it tough for the opposition to score, the Bruins weakness is scoring. This was especially true of Boston's power play in the opening round, as the B's failed to score a single goal on 21 opportunities with the man advantage. It marked the first time in NHL history that a team won a seven games series without scoring a power-play goal.

Boston also allowed six goals on Montreal's 27 chances with the man advantage.

The Bruins had four players with two goals or more in the opening round. Chris Kelly and Nathan Horton each had three tallies, while Patrice Bergeron and Michael Ryder hit the net twice.

A big turning point during Philadelphia's comeback against Boston last year was the injury suffered by Boston forward David Krejci in Game 3. Krejci suffered a broken wrist on a crushing hit by Philadelphia's Mike Richards and never returned to the series.

Krejci tied Milan Lucic for team lead with 62 points in the regular season, but the former had just one goal in the opening round. Lucic, who had five goals and two assists in the conference semis last year, had two assists in Round 1 against the Habs.

The Bruins got the better of Philadelphia in this year's regular season, taking three of the four meetings and outscoring the Flyers by a 13-8 margin. Philadelphia's only win came in an overtime victory on Dec. 11.

Van Riemsdyk and Richards led the Flyers with three points apiece in the season series, while Krejci paced Boston with four assists.

Thomas was 3-0-1 with a 1.95 GAA against the Flyers this season. Boucher was 1-2-0 with a 2.95 GAA versus the Bruins.

The Flyers, who will also host Game 2 on Monday, had a 22-12-7 record as the host this year. Boston, meanwhile, posted a 24-12-5 mark as the guest in the regular season.

Philadelphia was 2-2 on home ice against the Sabres in the opening round, while the Bruins went 2-1 in Montreal.