The collapse has reached seven straight losses for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Between a burnt out blueline and worn down goaltending to the team’s top forwards not coming up clutch, the Flyers are at a breaking point. They have fallen out of the playoff picture in what has been a snails race for the last two remaining spots.
Playoff Picture
As it stands today, the Flyers sit at 83 points with 4 games remaining. The New York Islanders currently hold the 3 seed in the Metropolitan Division with 85 points and 5 games remaining, while the Detroit Red Wings hold on to the final Wild Card slot with 84 points and also 5 games remaining. Tonight, the Red Wings take on the Capitals (83 points) and the Islanders play the Rangers. The Pittsburgh Penguins have jumped up in the standings as well and sit at 84 points after losing on Monday in overtime.
There are many teams still vying to be a part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Flyers, even with their 7-game losing streak, are not entirely out of the race just yet. Tonight’s game needs to result in 2 points for Philly.
Montréal to Play Spoiler
Tonight, the Flyers draw the 29-36-12 Montréal Canadiens who sit last place in the Atlantic Division. It has been evident, however, that the record of the opponent does not matter when they play the Flyers.
Philadelphia has been defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres and you guessed it, the Montréal Canadiens. The Flyers lost to Montréal on March 28th as Nick Suzuki recorded his 30th goal in the first period of that game. The Flyers would surrender two first period goals, a bad trend during this losing streak, and then concede two empty net goals late in the game. Tonight, the Flyers will need to contain the usual suspects in Suzuki (5 points in his last 5 games) and Cole Caufield, who has scored in each of his last 4 games.
The Energy Needs to Pick Up
As Flyers fans have seen, this team looks worn down. The goaltending situation has caught up to them. The defense seems to be running on fumes. The goals have been hard to come by and the clutch factor has eluded the Flyers’ top forwards through out this losing streak.
Tonight, the Flyers desperately need to start on the right foot and set the tone for the rest of the game. That first goal is incredibly vital tonight as the Flyers can not afford to dig themselves an early hole once more. It’s been time for the leaders on the team to step up, and tonight may be their last shot.
Flyers to Watch
It’s been five games without a goal from Travis Konecny. The back of the net has not been kind to him recently and his shot has been off. As the biggest offensive talent on the team, TK has to produce tonight against Montréal. The Flyers need him to get back on track for these final four games if they want to have a hope of getting into the playoffs. As one of the team’s veterans and leaders, look for Konecny to make his mark tonight.
On the other end of the ice, it’s goaltender Samuel Ersson. Ersson will get the nod tonight and it will be his 29th showing for the Flyers in the last 35 games. The Flyers have been squeezing all the juice they can out of Ersson and he has clearly been tired. The Flyers need a couple more out of the young netminder though, and tonight they will need an energized Ersson in order to collect these two points.
PHI Record: 36-31-11, 83 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
MTL Record: 29-36-12, 70 pts, 8th in Atlantic
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia+, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 4/6/24, 6-2 L at Columbus
Last Game MTL: 4/7/24, 5-2 L at NY Rangers
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (21-17-7, .889 SV%, 2.89 GAA, 3 SO)
MTL Goalie: Samuel Montembeault (15-15-7, .904 SV%, 3.10 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#71 Tyson Foerster – #48 Morgan Frost – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #21 Scott Laughton – #10 Bobby Brink
#62 Olle Lycksell – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #27 Noah Cates
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#18 Marc Staal – #77 Erik Johnson
#33 Samuel Ersson
#82 Ivan Fedotov
Scratches: #5 Egor Zamula, #15 Denis Gurianov, #23 Ronnie Attard, #44 Nicolas Deslauriers, #50 Adam Ginning, #89 Cam Atkinson
Injuries: #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
MTL Projected Lineup
#22 Cole Caufield – #14 Nick Suzuki – #20 Juraj Slafkovský
#11 Brendan Gallagher – #15 Alex Newhook – #40 Joel Armia
#70 Tanner Pearson – #71 Jake Evans – #17 Josh Anderson
#55 Michael Pezzetta – #28 Christian Dvorak – #49 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard
#8 Mike Matheson – #58 David Savard
#54 Jordan Harris – #26 Jonathan Kovacevic
#47 Jayden Struble – #52 Justin Barron
#35 Samuel Montembeault
#30 Cayden Primeau
Scratches: #36 Colin White, #56 Jesse Ylönen
Injuries: #21 Kaiden Guhle, #72 Arber Xhekaj, #77 Kirby Dach, #89 Joshua Roy
News and Notes
– In the Canadiens’ last 10 games, there has been an average of 7.3 total goals scored.
– Montréal has allowed 3.4 goals per game and have a -53 goal differential, bad enough for 28th in the league.
– The Flyers are 2-1-0 in their last three matchups against the Canadiens.
– Sean Couturier returns to the lineup after a two-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
– Marc Staal and Erik Johnson will return to the lineup as well after sitting in the press box for Saturday’s loss in Columbus.
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