Boynton In?

Nick Boynton

After being the best defensive pairing in the NHL for the first half of the season, Andrej Meszaros and Sean O'Donnell have looked average, at best, the last few weeks. The tandem combined for four penalties last night and each was a -1. O'Donnell's inability to win a puck battle in the corner, combined with Meszars' poor decision in front of the net, lead to the Leafs game winning goal.

With the acquisition of Nick Boynton off of waivers wires, I really don't see why the Flyers don't give O'Donnell a chance to rest. O'Donnell is 39 years old and has played in all but one of the Flyers' 63 games this season. The only game he missed was after spraining his knee two weeks ago against the Rangers, and most people thought he was rushed back to the ice due to his replacement being injured in the next game.

If they Flyers want to be able to roll all three pairings in the playoffs, O'Donnell is going to need a few games off before then. Boynton is also going to need some games to get familiar with his new teammates and Laviolette's system. This appears to be the perfect time to to do both, and I really don't think that Boyton could play any worse than O'Donnell has the past few weeks.