The Philadelphia Flyers (31-36-9) play the Montréal Canadiens (36-30-9) tonight, riding a 3-game winning streak into Bell Centre.
After defeating the lowly Nashville Predators on Monday, the Flyers fly out to Montréal. During their winning streak, the Flyers have scored 15 goals and have allowed 9 goals against in three games. The Flyers had scored 6 goals and 7 goals in back-to-back games, as well as giving up 4 goals in each of those games. The power play showed some signs of life, scoring on 3 of 8 power play attempts. Additionally, their penalty kill was successful 4 of 5 times.
Tonight, Montréal has the ‘home-ice advantage’ versus the Flyers. Per DraftKings Sportsbook, the Canadiens (-185) are slight favorites. Both teams are on 3-game winning streaks. The Canadiens are making their final push for a playoff birth, whereas the Flyers are still seeking their first 4-game winning streaks of the season and showing signs that this team has more to offer than they showed in the month of March.
When: 4/5/2025; 7:00pm/ET
Where: Bell Centre; Montréal, Québec
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia; Flyers Radio 24/7
Last Game PHI: 3/31/2025; 2-1 W; vs. Nashville Predators
Last Game MTL: 4/3/2025; 4-1 W; vs. Boston Bruins
Philadelphia Flyers
Samuel Ersson (21-15-5, 3.15 GAA, .880 SV%) will reassume the starting goaltending position. Ivan Fedotov goes back to the bench after leading the Flyers to their unlikely 2-1 win against Nashville on Monday. Despite the shot differential being 29-18 Predators, Fedotov was still able to stop 28 shots and posted a 1.00 GAA and .966 SV%.
Comparatively, Ersson and the Flyers defeated the Canadiens last Thursday on March 27th to a 6-4 final score. Although Ersson was the goalie in net, it was the Flyers skaters who won them that game. Typically, it is hard losing games when you score 6 or more goals. Additionally, the skaters scored a power play goal and went 2/2 on the penalty kill.
As you can see from above, Montréal will likely have a lot more jump in the first period with that game likely still fresh in their memories. This time, the Flyers will need Ersson at his best, which is not giving up 4 goals a game.
Matvei Michkov remains red-hot with 7 points in three games (4 goals, 3 assists). Three of these points (2 goals, 1 assist) came against the Canadiens, where he nearly scored a hat trick. Let’s see how Montréal responds, and how the Flyers’ 20-year-old rookie will handle their counter-strategies.
Karsen Dorwart will be making his NHL Debut tonight. Dorwart signed a 2yr/$1.95mil entry level contract. Karsen ranked second on his Michigan State Spartans, with 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists) in 35 games. Shaw spoke on Dorwart’s game last Monday.
“Good size. I watched some of the clips; looks like he [Dorwart] gets around the ice well. It’s hard to watch a guy at that level [the NCAA] and then try to extrapolate out what he’s going to look like here [the NHL]. I’m anxious to get him on the ice Wednesday, see what he looks like at this pace. We need depth at center, and hopefully he can be one of those solutions for us.” – Brad Shaw; 3/31/2025
Projected Lineup: Philadelphia Flyers
#71 Tyson Foerster – #27 Noah Cates – #10 Bobby Brink
#39 Matvei Michkov – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #25 Ryan Poehling – #22 Jakob Pelletier
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #23 Karsen Dorwart– #19 Garnet Hathaway
#24 Nick Seeler – #6 Travis Sanheim
#8 Cam York – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#5 Egor Zamula – #36 Emil Andrae
#33 Samuel Ersson
(#82 Ivan Fedotov)
Projected Lineup: Montréal Canadiens
#13 Cole Caufield – #14 Nick Suzuki – #20 Juraj Slafkovský
#89 Joshua Roy – #15 Alex Newhook – #92 Patrik Laine
#17 Josh Anderson – #28 Christian Dvorak – #11 Brendan Gallagher
#51 Emil Heineman – #71 Jake Evans – #40 Joel Armia
#8 Mike Matheson – #45 Alexandre Carrier
#47 Jayden Struble – #48 Lane Hutson
#72 Arber Xhekaj – #58 David Savard
#75 Jakub Dobeš
(#35 Sam Montembeault)
