Don't Worry About the Flyers' 3rd Line, Worry About the Bruins

So much drama and debate has fallen over the Flyers' third line.

Since the start of the season, it has seen some of the most change.

Whenever it happens, there's this huffing and puffing over the decision.

Why is he in? Why is he out?

And it's understandable. People love to analyze the coach. Everyone has an opinion and that's good. 

The latest ruffling of the fans' feathers came Wednesday when it appeared that Dave Hakstol would possibly be sitting Oskar Lindblom for Thursday night's game against the Bruins in favor of Mikhail Vorobyev.

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A young player goes out, a young player goes in - not exactly the trade-off Flyers fans probably hoped for when they anticipated Vorobyev rejoining the lineup.

If the 22-year-old Lindblom does in fact sit, it's not the end of the world. Thursday night will be the 10th game of the season. He has played in all nine and has faired fine to this point. Sitting one game won't ruin Lindblom or the Flyers.

At the end of the day, it's the third line - not the first or second. Lindblom played just 8:40 and 10:13 over the last two games, respectively. Depth is important, but it's not your top six.

That should be the biggest concern, not to mention the opponent Thursday.

The Bruins are a problem and the Flyers are in danger of starting 4-6-0, which would mark their most regulation defeats through the first 10 games of a season since 2013-14, when they started 3-7-0.

The Flyers' big boys will have their hands full against Boston. The Bruins' first line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak is a nightmare. Pastrnak came into Wednesday tied with Auston Matthews for the league lead in goals (10), Bergeron entered in a three-way tie for first in points (16), while Marchand is second in assists (11). The trio is a combined plus-19.

When Pastrnak is scoring goals like this, it should have your attention.

And to boot, Boston is 3-0-0 at home thus far, outscoring its opponents 18-6. Last season, the Bruins were 28-8-5 at TD Garden and scored the NHL's third-most home goals per game (3.59).

The Flyers have more prominent issues than deciding who will be their odd guys out each game. 

Finding some power-play success and shoring up the penalty kill would be a few.

Starting fast and not chasing the game would be another.

"It just seems to happen right now and we have to get that turned around," Brian Elliott said Monday. "We're going to talk about a few things in the coming days and try to get that turned around when we go on the road in Boston."

So forgive Hakstol if he gets a bit short or evasive when asked about every lineup decision.

Currently, his plate is quite full.

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