Bruins will be tough test for Flyers

The Boston Bruins, winners over the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night in the NHL's Eastern Conference quarterfinals, will be a tough test for the Flyers in their semifinal series slated to start Saturday.

Of course, revenge will be part of the mix.

It was the Bruins who dropped four straight games to the Flyers in last year's conference semifinals as the Flyers became just the third team in NHL playoff history to win a series after losing the first three games.

This season, the Flyers beat the Bruins just once in four games, a 2-1 overtime victory on Dec. 11. Boston outscored the Flyers, 13-8, in the four games, and no Flyer had more than one goal.

The Bruins this time around feature goalie Tim Thomas, defenseman Zdeno Chara, and 30-goal scorer Milan Lucic.

Thomas is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goalie after going 35-11-9 with nine shutouts during the regular season. He won the Vezina in 2009 and came back from offseason hip surgery to record a .938 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average this season. He was 3-0-1 against the Flyers with a 1.96 GAA and .942 save percentage this season.

The 6-foot-9, 255-pound Chara has long been one of the league's top players. A finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman three times in the last four seasons, including this one, he had 44 points on 14 goals and 30 assists and led the league with a plus-33 in the plus-minus ratings.

One soft spot for the Bruins in the series against the Canadiens was their power play. Boston was 0 for 21 in the series and became the first NHL team ever to win a seven-game series without a power-play goal.

"We've got to find a way and bear down," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said Tuesday night.

Bergeron had a team-high six playoff points going into Wednesday's game. Former Flyer Mark Recchi had three assists and a goal in the series, and former Flyer Dennis Seidenberg had a goal and two assists.

The Flyers were the team with the power-play problems during the season. They were 0 for 7 in the four games against Boston, while the Bruins went 4 for 12.

Boston coach Claude Julien may be anxious to advance past the Flyers because his job reportedly is on the line.