The Flyers, preparing to play Games 3 and 4 in Boston, can take solace in the fact that NHL road teams had a 31-26 playoff record this year heading into Tuesday. The Flyers, one of the league's best road teams in the regular season, were 2-1 in Buffalo in Round 1. Boston is 2-2 at home.
The Flyers struggled at home late in the regular season, and they are just 2-4 at the Wells Fargo Center during these playoffs.
Boston's power play is on the verge of equaling a dubious NHL record: most consecutive playoff games without a power-play goal.
The Bruins are 0 for 28 in nine playoff games this year. The record is 10 straight games without a power-play goal, set by Toronto in 1942.
Oh, one more thing: The Maple Leafs happened to win the Stanley Cup that season.
Including the regular season, Boston is 5-0-1 against the Flyers since last year's playoff meltdown.
Entering Tuesday, the Flyers' Claude Giroux led NHL playoff scorers with 12 points, while Boston's Patrice Bergeron was second with 11. Giroux was also tops with 11 playoff assists.
In the playoffs, Kimmo Timonen (plus-7), Giroux (plus-6), and Braydon Coburn (plus-4) have been the Flyers' leaders, while Matt Carle is a team-worst minus-7. In the regular-season, Carle was tied for fifth in the NHL at plus-30.
Rookie Brad Marchand (league-best plus-8), Bergeron (plus-7), and former Flyer Mark Recchi (plus-7) have been Boston's plus-minus leaders in the playoffs. The Bruins have only three "minus" players: Gregory Campbell, Danielle Paille, and Shawn Thornton, each at minus-2.
Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, a former Flyer, is a stunning plus-7 after the first two games of the series.
In Game 2 on Monday, he played 36 minutes, 44 seconds, had six blocked shots, and was plus-3.
"He's a horse," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "He's strong, and you look at the minutes he's been logging as well. He doesn't get tired; he can take it. And I think I've said that before, when we acquired him the one thing we knew about him was he was really a big-game player, and he's proven that and even more so.
"When you look at the way he's performed, you can see how much we missed him last year in the playoffs."
Seidenberg, 29, did not play in last year's series against the Flyers because of an arm injury. Drafted by the Flyers in the sixth round in 2001, Seidenberg was dealt to Phoenix for Petr Nedved in 2006.
- Sam Carchidi
