5 THINGS: Flyers @ Canadiens

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This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Montreal. The Flyers are 0-0-2 against the Habs this season, twice failing to protect leads in the latter portion of the third period and going on to settle for one point.
On Dec. 16 at the Bell Centre, Laurent Dauphin tied the game with 5:39 remaining in the third period. The Flyers failed to score on an overtime 4-on-3 power play and went on to lose via shootout, 3-2 (1-0). On March 13 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers had a lead and a power play in the final minute of regulation but proceeded to cough up a shorthanded goal to Rem Pitlick and then, after a turnover on a breakout, gave up an overtime goal to Cole Caufield to lose, 4-3.
The Flyers enter this game having lost six matches in a row, all in regulation. The club is coming off a 5-2 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday evening. James van Riemsdyk (21st goal of the season) and rookie defenseman Ronnie Attard (2nd) scored in a losing cause. Philadelphia is 10-23-5 in away games this season.
The Canadiens have also lost six games in a row in regulation. On Tuesday, the Habs were shut out on home ice, 2-0, by the Minnesota Wild. Cam Talbot recorded a 26-save shutout for Minnesota while Carey Price stopped 28 of 30 shots in his second game since returning to the Canadiens from a season-long leave to deal with personal issues.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Three Rookies on the Blueline
The Flyers lost veteran depth defenseman Kevin Connauton to a lower-body injury in Tuesday's game in Toronto. With the season ending on April 29, it is questionable whether Connauton will be able to suit up again before the season concludes. Likewise, injured veteran defenseman Nick Seeler is also doubtful to play again in 2021-22.
Rookie defenseman Cam York is dealing with a lower-body injury and is officially on day-to-day status. However, due to teamwide off-days and travel, he has not been able to practice with the club since getting injured in the April 12 game in Washington. Additionally, second-pair defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen remains sidelined with a upper-body injury sustained in the same game that saw York, Carter Hart, Patrick Brown (out of the season), and Nate Thompson (who has since returned to the lineup) go down.
On Wednesday, the Flyers recalled puck-moving defenseman Linus Högberg on an emergency basis from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 24-year-old will make his NHL debut in Montreal. Högberg has dealt with injury issues in his own right this season with the Phantoms but recently returned to their lineup and dressed in 57 of the farm team's 70 games played this season (0g, 7a, 14 penalty minutes).
Between Högberg, Attard (10 games played) and Egor Zamula (5 GP), there is a lot of youthful inexperience on the Flyers' blueline. In the meantime, 35-year-old veteran Keith Yandle has recently been pressed back into every-game service as a starter after his NHL record 989-game ironman streak ended and he was scratched in a combined five games.
2. Starting Opportunity for Sandström
With an off-day on Wednesday, the Flyers have not confirmed a starting goaltender as of this writing for Thursday's game. However, there seems to be a distinct possibility that the team will alternate starters in upcoming games. With Martin Jones having started in Toronto on Tuesday, the nod could go to Felix Sandström in Montreal.
If so, Sandström will make his fourth career NHL start. He acquitted himself well in each of his first three appearances, although he's still in search of his first NHL win. Sandström got the start against the New York Rangers on April 13 (30 saves on 33 shots) and on Easter Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres (35 saves on 39 shots, stellar third period).
3. Inside the Numbers
No matter how one slices and dices the underlying numbers for the Flyers and Canadiens -- puck possession, shot quality, 5-on-5 performance, special teams, breakouts, entries, overall GF/GA rankings -- there's a variety of reasons why Philadelphia and Montreal are respectively in 30th and 31st place in the 32-team NHL.
Bottom line: The Canadiens rank dead last in the NHL with a 3.83 goals against average and 31st in goals scored at 2.52 per game. The Flyers haven't been much better at 2.56 goals per game (30th) and a team 3.62 goals against average (28th).
The Canadiens are a minus-46 at 5-on-5 this season (135 GF - 181 GA) while the Flyers are minus-31 (151 GF - 182 GA).
Philadelphia brings in an NHL-worst 87.4 special teams rating (12.2 percent power play efficiency + 75.2 percent penalty kill), which ties them with Arizona for the bottom-ranked combined special teams in the NHL. The Habs come in at 87.8 (13.2% PP + 74.6% PK), ranking 30th. The Flyers have only scored eight power play goals over their last 100 opportunities.

The National Hockey League officially started recording team power play and penalty killing statistics in the 1977-78 season. However, the Flyershistory.com website includes hand-tracked unofficial statistics from the inaugural 1967-68 season onward in addition to the official league-kept stats.
Per the calculations of Flyershistory.com's Pete Anson, the Flyers' power play in 1967-68 went 33-for-269 (12.3 percent). Thus, the current team's 12.2 percent pace on the power play (27-for-222) is the lowest since the team stat was first officially tracked in 1977-78 and may finish as the worst in franchise history unless it improves over the remaining five games this season.
4. Behind Enemy Lines: Montreal Canadiens
The Habs have been held to two or fewer goals in four of the last five games, including a pair of shutout losses at home. Over that span, Ryan Poehling (3g, 0) and veteran defenseman Jeff Petry (0g, 3a) have produced the most points.
Nick Suzuki leads the Canadiens with 20 goals, 37 assists and 57 points this season. He's followed by Caufield (18g, 28a, 38 points), Pitlick (13g, 20 assists, 33 points), veteran forward Mike Hoffman (11g,18a, 29 points) and Josh Anderson (18g, 10a, 28 points). In 51 games this season, Brendan Gallagher has 19 points (6g, 13a).
Limited to 34 games played this season and presently on IR, Jonathan Drouin produced 20 points (6g, 14a). In addition to missing Price all season until April, the Habs have been without team leader and veteran defensive backbone Shea Weber throughout 2021-22. Goalie Jake Allen (9-20-4, 3.30 GAA, .905 SV%, two shutouts) is also currently on IR.
5. Players to Watch: Konecny and Caufield
Beyond starting the 2021-22 season with goals in each of the first three games, Travis Konecny has had well-documented issues with finishing scoring chances (14 overall in 74 games played, 11 goals over his last 71 games). Less discussed has been a surge in assists. Konecny's 35 helpers lead the team and he has a realistic shot at the first 40-assist season of his NHL career. He's two assists away from matching the career-best 37 he posted during his NHL All-Star season of 2019-20.
Dating back to the 2022 All-Star break, Konecny leads the Flyers with 24 points in 31 games played (6g, 18a). Entering Thursday's game, Konecny is one point behind Cam Atkinson (23g, 27a) for the Flyers' team scoring lead. Atkinson has missed the last four games with a lower-body injury.

Highly touted young Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield got off to a slow start this season and was briefly sent down to the AHL's Laval Rocket for a six-game stint. He's since gotten back on track, especially since the coaching change in Montreal from Dom Ducharme to St. Louis.
Dating back to the NHL All-Star break, Caufield shares the team scoring lead with Suzuki. Over his last 33 games played, Caufield has posted 17 goals and 30 points. Suzuki has 11 goals and 19 assists in the same span. However, Caufield is pointless over the last five games after a four-game goal scoring streak.
Thursday's game aired on
NBC Sports Philadelphia.