Vigneault keeps faith in underachieving Flyers, but will that impact deadline?

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The Flyers (18-15-6) have one more matchup with the Bruins (21-10-6), which comes Saturday in Philadelphia.

It's the first of two more games for Alain Vigneault and company before Monday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.

Let's get into the essentials for the game:

  • When: 2 p.m. ET with Flyers Pregame Live at 1 p.m. ET
  • Where: Wells Fargo Center
  • Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
  • Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app

• With 17 games remaining, the Flyers are six points back of the Bruins, who hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division. Boston also has two games in hand. The head-to-head matchup did serious damage to the Flyers' playoff chances. Coinciding with the Flyers' underachieving 2020-21 season has been the club's 1-4-2 record against the Bruins.

The odds are starting to stack against the Flyers in the 56-game regular-season, a year in which they're allowing the NHL's second-most goals per game at 3.51.

“We’ve just got to keep battling here, stick together and go one game at a time," Claude Giroux said Friday. "We can’t be looking at the big picture here."

We'll have to wait and see how general manager Chuck Fletcher approaches the trade deadline. Management very well might be close to shifting its focus to 2021-22.

Vigneault was asked Friday if he felt his sixth-place club needed help at the deadline.

"Like I've said many times, my job and my focus is to work with the players that I have here," the Flyers' head coach said. "Chuck is aware, we talk on a daily basis on where I think we are as a group. My job is to work with the players that I have and that's what I'm doing, I really believe that we have a good team. Our record doesn't indicate how good our team is. But there are still quite a few games left and what we need to do is focus on tomorrow, and that's what I'm going to do."

• Brian Elliott will start in net, while the Flyers will see Jeremy Swayman again. The 22-year-old is an impressive 2-0-0 with 71 saves on 75 shots over his first two NHL games. He won his NHL debut with 40 saves against the Flyers in the Bruins' 4-2 win Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Projected lineup

 

Forwards

James van Riemsdyk-Sean Couturier-Oskar Lindblom

Jakub Voracek-Claude Giroux-Travis Konecny

Scott Laughton-Kevin Hayes-Joel Farabee

Michael Raffl-Nolan Patrick-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov-Justin Braun

Travis Sanheim-Robert Hagg

Samuel Morin-Shayne Gostisbehere

Goalies

Brian Elliott

Carter Hart

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