Flyers Game Preview vs. Bruins: Season's First Must-Win Game

The Philadelphia Flyers enter their sixth game of the season carrying an 0-3-2 record, and they are the last team in the Eastern Conference without a win. Things won't get any easier on Saturday afternoon, as they'll face a 3-2-0 Boston Bruins team at TD Garden at 1 p.m. in their first midday game of the season.

On Thursday, the Flyers played their best game of the season against Ottawa, though the bar, at this point, is pretty low for that standard.

Matvei Michkov scored the Flyers' first power play goal of the season, and new free agent signing Michael Bunting made his Flyers debut, though he took the penalty the Senators would score on to tally the game-winning goal in the 2-1 defeat of Philadelphia.

With Joseph Woll getting the start on Thursday night, it is likely Dan Vladar's turn to tend goal for the Flyers as head coach Rick Tocchet and Co. look to rotate their goalies on this back-to-back; the Flyers will come home to host Carolina on Sunday night.

Veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen accompanied the team for this three-game road trip, but it's currently unclear if he'll return for Saturday afternoon's game against the Bruins.

If not, the Flyers are in action again on Sunday night and Tuesday night.

In any event, this is clearly the Flyers' first must-win game of the season, especially with so many players struggling at the moment. If they lose six in a row, well, they'll have lost their last 10 games dating back to last season's playoffs, and this season's playoffs will begin to look like a pipe dream.

Flyers lines vs. Bruins

Travis Konecny - Sean Couturier - Porter Martone

Trevor Zegras - Christian Dvorak - Owen Tippett

Tyson Foerster - Denver Barkey - Matvei Michkov

Michael Bunting - Noah Cates - Noel Acciari

Travis Sanheim - Jamie Drysdale

Cam York - David Jiricek

Nick Seeler - Simon Benoit

Dan Vladar (S), Joseph Woll

Bruins lines for Flyers game

Morgan Geekie - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak

Marat Khusnutdinov - Fraser Minten - J.J. Peterka

Casey Mittelstadt - Elias Lindholm - James Hagens

Tanner Jeannot - Matt Poitras - Mark Kastelic

Hampus Lindholm - Will Borden 

Nikita Zadorov - Connor Clifton

Frederic Brunet - Mason Lohrei

Flyers special teams

Power play: 1-for-15, 6.7% (29th)

Penalty kill: 15-for-20, 75% (22nd)

Bruins special teams

Power play: 3-for-14, 21.4% (16th)

Penalty kill: 15-for-18, 83.3% (14th)

How to watch the Flyers game

Saturday afternoon's Flyers game can be found on NHL Network, NBC Sports Philadelphia, NESN, Sportsnet East, and TVAS. 97.5 The Fanatic will have the radio broadcast.

Flyers player to watch

Porter Martone has not had an easy go at the start of his first professional season, but he's too smart and talented to stay quiet for this long.

Martone was dragging his teammates into the fight against Tampa Bay on Monday night, though he finished the game without a shot on goal, the third such instance for him this season.

The 19-year-old scored his first NHL goal, an overtime winner, against the Bruins back on April 5, in addition to his assist on Christian Dvorak's tuck to open the scoring.

The Flyers haven't quite depended on Martone so much as, say, Tyson Foerster, and his flying under the radar might create the opportunity for him to do some damage against the Bruins on Saturday afternoon.