Pronger Battles Bruins in Philly

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The Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins meet tonight at the Wachovia Center in Pennsylvania. Both teams are off to slow starts in the midst of big expectations. Sound familiar? The B's and P's are experiencing a similar start to the season like what the Blues have gone through in St. Louis.

Former Note defenseman and new Philly arrival Chris Pronger is off to a very good start, amassing a goal and four assists and has played in all six of the Flyers' games. He's a plus-three and owns a team leading 20 minutes in penalties. Pronger is averaging an amazing 28:13 per game which is tops in the NHL. Flyers' coach John Stevens has stated, though, that they have played Pronger too much and want to more evenly distribute minutes among the Flyers' "D'. Despite Prongs' addition, Philadelphia is only 3-2-1 for seven points. That's good for 19th in the NHL's overall standings, one spot above the 3-3-1 Blues.

The Bruins are only 17th overall with a mark of 4-4. Boston has given up 25 goals while only scoring 23...a significant departure from last season when Boston held the top seed in the East while head coach Claude Julien captured Jack Adams' Coach of the Year honors.

Bruins' netminder Tim Thomas, last year's save-percentage leader and Vezina Trophy winner (top goalie) is off to a lukewarm 3-3 start with a save percentage of .902 which ranks 31st in the league.

Another Flyers' offseason addition, goaltender Ray Emery is 3-2-1 with a save percentage of .903. Safe to say both teams will need much better play in nets to go anywhere in 2010.

Tonight's matchup is the first-of-four between the two this season. The teams will also meet in the 2010 Winter Classic, from Fenway Park, on January 1st.

TPC