Playing their penultimate road game of the 2023-24 regular season. John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (36-31-11) are in Quebec on Tuesday to play the Montreal Canadiens (29-36-12). Game time at Bell Centre is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The game will be televised on NBCSP+. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second and final game in Montreal. The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Habs this season. Philadelphia won a 3-2 (1-0) game via shootout at Wells Fargo Center on January 10. More recently, on March 28, the visiting Flyers lost 4-1. A Philadelphia comeback bid in the third period from a 2-0 deficit was waylaid by disallowed Garnet Hathaway (kicking motion in a netmouth scramble) and Morgan Frost (coach's challenge for a Tyler Foerster offside) goals. Montreal scored a pair of empty net goals sandwiched around an Owen Tippett tally that stood as the lone Philadelphia goal of the night.
The Flyers have lost seven consecutive games (0-5-2), including a 6-2 game in Columbus on Saturday. The Canadiens have lost each of their last three games, including a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The Canadiens will be playing their third game in four nights.
Here are five things to watch in Tuesday's game.
1. Flyers Need to Help Themselves and Get Help
By virtue of their seven-game winless stretch, the Flyers no longer control their own destiny in their bid to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season. The Flyers not only need to help their own cause by beating the Canadiens this time around -- preferably in regulation -- Philly also needs the teams they're chasing in the playoff race to lose. That's the only way for the Flyers can recover from the damage of the last two weeks.
First and foremost, the Flyers need to put aside their performance from Saturday against a Columbus Blue Jackets team that was missing 10 players from their lineup. The Flyers need to stop hemorrhaging opposing goals and digging multi-goal deficits for themselves. These things have happened too many times over the last several weeks.
If the Flyers don't start getting makeable saves (82.45 percent as a team across all game situations in the last 11 games), they won't be able to end their tailspin. Ditto if the team does not start finishing more of their scoring chances (team 7.93 percent overall shooting percentage in the last 11 games, 12.75 percent on high-danger chances).
If the Flyers manage to win in Montreal, they'll overtake the idle Pittsburgh Penguins by one point (85 to 84) in the standings. The Penguins will hold one game in hand and a tiebreaker edge over Philly.
On Tuesday, the two non-Flyers games of primary interest are the Washington Capitals visiting the Detroit Red Wings and the New York Islanders visiting the New York Rangers.
Best-case scenario: \Flyers beat Montreal (preferably in regulation), Rangers beat Islanders in regulation, Detroit beats Washington in regulation. \This combination of results would a) move the Flyers one point ahead of the Penguins, b) tie the Flyers with the Islanders in standings points (the Islanders would hold one game in hand and be ahead based on points percentage), move the Flyers two points ahead of the Capitals, and regain a tiebreaker advantage (if necessary). The Capitals would still hold one game in hand.
Note: If the Red Wings lose to the Capitals, assuming a Flyers win, Philly and Washington would remain tied in points but Philly would overtake (Detroit regulation loss) or tie (Detroit overtime or shootout loss) the Red Wings in points. Detroit will still hold one game in hand.
2. Scoring Committee Members Needed Immediately
Over the last 10 games, the Flyers have scored a mere 24 goals (2.40 goals per game). Only five teams -- Anaheim, Seattle, Calgary, San Jose, and Columbus -- have scored at a lower rate since March 17. Overall this season, the Flyers rank 26th offensively at an average 2.85 goals scored per game.
In the 10-game sample, Owen Tippett paces the Flyers with eight points (4g, 4a). He's followed by Travis Konecny with seven points (4g, 3a), Morgan Frost (2g, 4a) and Scott Laughton (3g, 3a) with six points apiece, Tyson Foerster (3g, 1a), and Travis Sanheim (2g, 2a).
That's not enough. More is collectively needed from this group, as well as Joel Farabee (0g, 1a over the last 10 games), Bobby Brink (1g, 1a), Garnet Hathaway (0g, 4a), Ryan Poehling (1g, 2a), Noah Cates (2g, 1a) and Cam York (0g, 2a).
Sean Couturier (zero points, six games played of Philly's last 10) participated in Monday's practice, wearing a no-contact jersey for a portion of practice. Olle Lycksell scored his first NHL goal last game, as did defensive defenseman Adam Ginning.
3. Getting Saves on Low-to-Medium Danger Shots
Team play and goalie play are symbiotic. Over time, if sufficiently strong or deficient, they'll either lift up one another or drag down one another. The Flyers have been caught in a vicious cycle of late.
Over the last 10 games,the Flyers have allowed 41 goals (4.10 GAA). Only the Calgary Flames (4.11 GAA in a nine-game sample) have been yielding goals at a comparably poor pace of late.
In last Friday's game against Buffalo, Ivan Fedotov allowed a pair of stoppable goals to the blocker side from 35 to 38 feet from the net. The next night in Columbus, with Samuel Ersson in goal, the Flyers tied an unwanted NHL record by yielding six goals to Blue Jackets' defenseman.
The Flyers are still not allowing a lot of shots on goal by volume -- just 19 in the Buffalo game, for example -- but they're having costly breakdowns at inopportune times.
All of these areas need an immediate course correction. Opposing goals are coming too easily of late, and it's not entirely on the goalies.
4. Flyers Special Teams vs. Montreal Special Teams
The Flyers have struggled on the power play for the vast majority of the season. The penalty kill was a major strength for the first eighty percent of the season, but has been struggling in its own right over the last month.
The last time the Flyers played the Canadiens, Philly got off to a strong start at the beginning of the first period. However, an early power play proved to be a momentum killer, and Philly did not recover until the latter portion of the second period.
This, too, has become a vicious cycle of late: one that reared its head again both in the Buffalo and Columbus (unsuccessful four-minute power play) matches.
Over the span of the last calendar month (14 games), the Flyers power play is 5-for-42 (11.9 percent). That's lower than the team's full-season 12.7 percent rate on the power play, which ranks last in the league.
On the penalty kill, the Flyers have dropped to fourth in the NHL for the season at 83.5 percent. In and of themselves, Philadelphia's overall percentage and ranking are not a big concern. Rather, the concern is how much of a struggle the past month has been.
Over the last 14 games, the Flyers penalty kill has stumbled to a 65.7 percent success rate (23-for-35). Additionally, while the Flyers still lead the NHL for the season with 15 shorthanded goals, they've only scored one goal via that route in the last month. This would not be a concern if Philly wasn't also giving up opposing power play goals at an alarming rate over the past four weeks. Even injury-riddled Columbus, ranked 30th on the power play this season, went 1-for-3 against Philly on Saturday.
The Canadiens rank 26th overall on the power play this season (17.5 percent), and have struggled as much as the Flyers (5-for-42, 11.9 percent) over their last 14 games. However, the Montreal PK has been good over this last month (40-for-48, 83.3 percent, two shorthanded goals). For the season overall, their penalty kill ranks tied for 25th at 76.4 percent and has scored six shorthanded goals.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Montreal Canadiens
Cayden Primeau has turned in a pair of strong starts in Montreal's two games against the Flyers this season. He's coming off a 41-save performance in a losing cause against the Rangers on Sunday. Primeau, an alumnus of Team Comcast and Bishop Eustace, is the son of former Flyers captain Keith Primeau and the nephew of "Keenan's Kids" era Flyers alum Derrick Smith.
Montreal's other goalie, Sam Montembeault has appeared in 37 games this season (15-15-7, 3.10 GAA, .904 save percentage). Montembeault started the April 6 game against Toronto, but was pulled after allowing four goals on 12 shots. His last win came against Florida (37 saves on 40 shots) on April 2.
For the season, Nick Suzuki leads the Habs in scoring with 74 points (33 goals, 41 assists). He's followed by Cole Caufield (24g, 35a, 59 points).
