Bruins at Flyers
THE STORY: The Philadelphia Flyers may be winning in the standings, but they are losing a great deal of man power in the process. Sure, the Flyers skated to a 4-1 triumph over the Atlantic Division rival New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon, but they also lost two key cogs to injury in Daniel Briere and Jaromir Jagr. Briere became the sixth member of the Flyers to suffer a concussion this season, joining All-Star Claude Giroux, captain Chris Pronger, James van Riemsdyk and rookies Matt Read and Brayden Schenn. "I'm not too good right now," Briere wrote in a text to CSNPhilly.com. "I don't even know what happened." Jagr exited the contest in the first period with an undisclosed lower body injury, although the 39-year-old has been plagued by a nagging groin injury for quite some time. Philadelphia will likely be without both stars when it hosts the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon. The last time the Bruins paid a visit to the City of Brotherly Love, the Wells Fargo Center faithful booed the home team out of the building following a 6-0 throttling on Dec. 17.
TV: 3 p.m. ET, NESN, CSP
ABOUT THE BRUINS (30-13-2): After Tim Thomas received the afternoon off in Saturday's 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Rangers, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner will resume his traditional post versus the Flyers - and with good reason. Thomas stopped all 31 shots he faced in the Dec. 17 meeting to improve to 11-3-2 with two shutouts in his career against Philadelphia. Boston's power play continues to lack juice. The Bruins, who went 0 for 4 with the man advantage on Saturday, have converted just three times in their last 27 opportunities.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (28-14-4): Scott Hartnell was left out of the All-Star Game, and he's doing his best to show everyone that he belonged. Hartnell, who found the net twice on Saturday, has four goals in his last five games and leads the team with 22 tallies. Hartnell has traditionally struggled versus the Bruins (10 points in 25 career games) and was held off the scoresheet in both contests this season. Read scored for the second straight contest on Saturday and leads all NHL rookies with 15 tallies. The undrafted Read is riding a five-game point streak.
OVERTIME:
1. The Bruins will spend their off day on Monday by visiting President Barack Obama at the White House. The reigning Stanley Cup champions will then face the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
2. With Briere and Jagr sidelined, the Flyers recalled forwards Tom Sestito and Ben Holmstrom from Adirondack of the American Hockey League.