With their 4-3 overtime win over Montreal in Game 7, the Boston Bruins advanced to the second round to face the Flyers. For the second straight year, the Flyers and Bruins will square off in the Semi-finals, but this year a lot has changed.
Instead of facing Tuukka Rask, the Flyers will be up against Vezina-favorite Tim Thomas this year. During the regular season, Thomas led all goalies with a 0.938 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.00. Against the Flyers, Thomas was even better, stopping 0.942 of all shots and giving up 1.96 goals per game.
But there is good news: Thomas was rather poor (7 goals on 68 shots) against the Flyers in Boston. In other words: his good numbers against the Flyers are the result of feast or famine. Kind of like Ryan Miller.
Outside of Thomas, the Bruins boast a slew of solid, if unspectacular, forwards. The same is true on defense. It should be a good series, and probably another long one.