Bruins at Flyers
THE STORY: The Philadelphia Flyers are riding high on a season-best seven-game winning streak, but they were served a very low blow upon learning that captain Chris Pronger will miss the remainder of the season with severe post-concussion syndrome. Philadelphia coach Peter Laviolette did his best to put Pronger's loss in perspective. "With regard to Chris, the news is certainly not what we wanted," Laviolette said. "It's hard to replace a guy like that. You can't. He plays 26 or 27 minutes, and there's no one person or one individual that we can find in the organization to replace him." The sobering news does little to alleviate the worrying with NHL points leader Claude Giroux currently nursing a concussion of his own. The Flyers will try to forge ahead against the visiting Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins also have an injured captain, but Zdeno Chara returned to practice on Friday after missing the team's last two games with a knee ailment. Like Philadelphia, Boston has enjoyed a pronounced winning streak this season and is 17-2-1 in its last 20 games. With their fourth straight win on Saturday, the Bruins will join the Flyers for the most points atop the Eastern Conference.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, NHLN, NESN
ABOUT THE BRUINS (20-9-1): Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas may have been in net for the season-opening 2-1 loss, but still owns an impressive 14-3-2 career mark against the Flyers. Last year, Thomas personally swept aside Philadelphia in the conference semifinals on the way to leading the Bruins to the Stanley Cup - and a Conn Smythe Trophy to boot. C Tyler Seguin has struggled lately, recording one goal and two assists in his last nine games.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (20-7-3): While his numbers don't rival Thomas, Ilya Bryzgalov has enjoyed success against Boston. The prized offseason acquisition stopped 22 shots in the season opener to improve to 5-1-1 with a slim 1.85 goals-against average versus Boston. RW Wayne Simmonds has collected a goal in four straight games. D Andrej Meszaros, who scored in Thursday's 4-3 win over Montreal, is making his goals count for the Flyers. Four of Meszaros' 11 tallies have ended up as game-winners.
OVERTIME:
1. Boston has flourished in the third period, collecting an NHL-best plus-25 in the session. All told, the Bruins have scored 46 of their 99 goals in the third period this season.
2. With a win on Saturday, Philadelphia will match the eight-game winning streak it put together from Jan. 6-19, 2002.