Philadelphia Flyers Return Home To Take On Boston Bruins

Tuesday marks the first game in the last week of the Philadelphia Flyers‘ NHL schedule. It’s a sad time for Flyers fans to not see the team go into the playoffs. To put that into perspective, the last time they missed a playoff berth was seven years ago. That’s seven years of this team being good, but this season they tanked like they never have before.

Despite this, the Flyers still want to finish out their season strong. They started this on Saturday night with a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. On Tuesday night they will be trying to repeat this when they go up against the Boston Bruins. Since the Bruins have already clinched a playoff spot, this game will be easy for them. That means the Flyers will need to work extra hard to get the win.

The Bruins may not have Tim Thomas anymore, but Tuukka Rask has taken hold of the goaltending duties in stride. He has proven himself to be a huge contender for the Vezina, which will make this game worrisome for the Flyers’ lackluster offense.This just means that the team’s goal scoring leader, Jakub Voracek, will need to find a way around Rask.

Voracek has been pretty solid all season long as he had his career best season logging 20 goals. Unfortunately he has been one of the only players that has been able to get on the scoreboard. The Flyers’ captain Claude Giroux is currently leading in points through the 32 assists he has logged this season, so he will be trying to get Voracek to the net to fight for this win.

The Flyers should really just be giving rookies Oliver Lauridsen and Brandon Manning solid minutes in this last week. With the team being out of the playoffs already they have nothing to lose by letting the young kids play. They also should play backup goalie Steve Mason out so fans and the organization can really see how he holds it together for the team.

With Rask backing up players like the monster that is Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, the Flyers might be in trouble on Tuesday. However, the Bruins may not take the game seriously so the Flyers might be able to surprise them if they can come out strong in the beginning of their last week of the season.

Deanna Vasso is a Flyers writer for www.rantsports.com, you can follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and join her Google network.