5 Things: Flyers vs. Avalanche

In the second match of a five-game homestand, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (8-8-2) will host Jared Bednar's Colorado Avalanche (9-9-0) on Monday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EST.

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 first of two games between the inter-conference teams during the 2024-25 season. The Flyers and Avalanche will rematch in Denver on the afternoon of February 2, 2025. Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-0 against the Avs with a 5-2 road win (Dec. 9, 2023) and 7-4 home loss (Jan. 20, 2024).

The Flyers started out the current season by winning just one of their first seven games (1-5-1). Since that time, the Flyers are 7-3-1 over their last 11 games including a current three-game winning streak and five-game point streak (4-0-1). For the Flyers to continue their recent winning way, the club will likely have to replicate a similar process to how they played in Saturday's 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Prior to Monday's game, Flyers defenseman Eric Johnson will receive his Silver Stick from the National Hockey League, indicative of reaching his milestone 1,000th career regular season game in Saturday's win over Buffalo. Johnson previously spent 13-plus seasons with the Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2021-22,

Once Monday's match gets underway, here are five things to watch.

1. Follow same process as last game

During Monday's edition of Flyers Daily host Jason Myretus devoted a full segment to looking at how the Flyers progressively clawed their way out of a terrible start to the season to reach "hockey .500" by game 18. In a nutshell, it started with improving the team's own-zone defensive structure, getting needed saves from the goaltender. Step two was executing better breakouts and moving up the ice as five-man units rather than generating little more than one-and-done attempts to attack. Once in the offensive zone, the puck support needed improvement. Finally, the Flyers needed to get attackers to the scoring areas and be in position to either benefit from some puck luck or pounce on a chance in close.

Saturday's convincing win over the Sabres was arguably as close as the Flyers have gotten so far this season to putting all of these elements together in the same game. For good measure, the Flyers bagged a power play goal in the first period to open the scoring.

Although the Avalanche are off to a so-so start to the season in their own right, Bedar's team remains a bonafide contender in the Western Conference. The Flyers will need to produce a similar performance to Saturday's game, playing from ahead, winning the majority of the puck battles and taking away time and space from their opponent.

2. The Travii

The best of friends off the ice, Flyers defensemen Travis Sanheim and winger Travis Konecny are each currently playing some of the best hockey of their respective careers. If individual players deserve to be singled out for the team's recovery from the 1-5-1 start, the "Travii" are at the top of the list.

Sanheim, 28, enjoyed a strong first quarter of last season, too. This season, however, he's elevated his overall game -- offensively as well as defensively, to the highest level he's attained since a torrid month he enjoyed in early 2020 before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, Sanheim has even been exceeding that level. He's logging monstrous ice time on a game-to-game basis (sometimes even 30-plus minutes). He's defending well. He's playing with sky high confidence in the offensive zone, too. Sanheim has been doing all of this with a rotating cast of blueline partners because of all the recent injuries within the defense corps.

An NHL All-Star Game participant last season and the team's leading scorer in each of the two previous seasons, the 27-year-old Konecny leads the Flyers offensively once again at a career-best pace (11 goals, 11 assists, 22 points through 18 games). Always playing on the emotional edge and pushing the envelope between assertiveness and risk-taking, Konecny has learned how to better select his spots. He's played with a wide variety of different linemates this season and it's not a coincidence that most of the Flyers top lines in given games have involved Konecny as part of the trio. He's been making his linemates better players.

3. "Next man up" mentality

The Flyers are currently a banged-up team on the blueline and in net. On the blueline, Cam York, Jamie Drysdale and rookie Emil Andrae are all dealing with injuries. York, at least, is close to being ready to exit Injured Reserve and return to the starting lineup. Drysdale, who has been on IR for the past week, is not expected to miss much time. Andrae went down in the third period of Saturday's game.

In net, primary starting goaltender Samuel Ersson is also on IR with a lower-body injury. Backup goaltender Ivan Fedotov has delivered wins in each of his last three starts, A similar "next man up" resilience is needed on the blueline to work successfully around the injuries on the blueline. If necessary, the Flyers will dress a call-up defenseman from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

4. Foerster and Zamula

Entering their respective second full seasons in the National Hockey League, there were high hopes that winger Tyson Foerster and defenseman Egor Zamula would pick up where they left off last season. Unfortunately, those two players (among the majority of the roster) stumbled out of the gates and were healthy scratches in at least one game. More recently, the two have shown improved all-around play and also got rewarded at the offensive end of the ice with a goal apiece in Saturday's win against the Sabres.

With Foerster, who temporarily went down to the fourth line at 5-on-5, it all starts with his work along the boards and in generating forechecking pressure. Those aspects have improved in recent games and he's starting to be more involved in positive plays from the offensive end as a result.

So far this season, Foerster has only generated one of his signature goals on heavy shots from the flank so far this season (in the Flyers' 2-0 win in Boston on Oct. 29). However, there are other ways he can score goals. Foerster's power play goal against the Sabres, similar to his man advantage tally against Vancouver on opening night, came about by getting himself to the net. On Saturday, Foerster cleaned up a rebound at the doorstep.

With Zamula, the challenge is to more consistently make quick and accurate reads and reactions in both defensive and attacking under pressure situations. The last few games have been a noticeable step in the right direction.

5. Behind enemy lines: Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have been a very inconsistent team so far this season -- 6-6-0 at home, 3-3-0 on the road, 5-5-0 in the last 10 games, minus-seven in goal differential -- but remain one of the NHL's top clubs when they are on their game. Monday's game marks the start of an important four-game road trip for Colorado. With the Winnipeg Jets off to a scorching hot start to the season, the Avalanche have significant ground to make up in the Central Division standings.

Colorado's marquee superstars are off to torrid starts. Nathan MacKinnon's 33 points put him atop the early season Art Ross Trophy race. Number one defenseman Cale Makar already has a half-dozen goals and leads all NHL blueliners with 25 points (eighth overall among all players). The recipient of many of MacKinnon's offensive setups, winger Mikko Rantanen, has 12 goals and 25 points. More is needed from the supporting cast, and the Avs collectively have to play better in their 200-foot-game and get more saves in key situations. Some games, they've gotten it. Other times. it's been lacking.