Flyers Look to Stop Skid In Montreal
By Scott Cole
The Flyers are struggling mightily right now and are in the midst of a five game losing streak. In many ways, travelling north to Montreal should be a blessing. The Canadiens are also a team that is struggling to find out who they are. However, many of the teams that the Flyers have lost to during this skid include bottom dwellers like the Columbus Blue Jackets (twice) and the Ottawa Senators. So, who knows what will happen with this one.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 7-7-3 (17 points, 6th in Metro)
This year is starting out exactly as last year did. The Flyers started off well, racked up some injuries, played better than they should, started losing some close games, and then find themselves in an extended losing streak. Coach John Tortorella was correct when he said “We suck.” However, he has also defended them and saying that they are trying and playing as hard as they can.
And this is a big difference between these two. You can suck because you don’t care and you can suck because you just don’t have the talent. The Flyers players are trying their best. They are putting in the effort. They are creating good opportunities to score. They just don’t have the scoring depth needed to put up points. Without points, you can’t win.
Of course, they are hurting themselves big time with taking penalties. The Flyere have dropped to 27th in the NHL in penalty minutes. This has also lead them from going in one week from around the middle of the pack on the penalty kill to 25th overall with a nasty 74.1% penalty kill effectiveness. Yikes. That’s one area where we could use Coots right now. Another area where penalties are killing this team is faceoff percentage, where the Flyers are third worst in the NHL with a 45.3% from the circle.
On the positive side of things Patrick Brown is back. After a very brief stay in the AHL to rehab, the Flyers called him up to big club. He doesn’t have any points, but he did give out four hits in the game against Boston.
Carter Hart has been struggling as of late. True, he has been giving up some weak goals after looking like an all-star netminder in October. His stats are still near the top of the league despite the losing streak. However, it isn’t his fault the Flyers keep going on the penalty kill. It isn’t his fault that his defense allows a lot of traffic in front of the net, which leaves himself open to rebound shots. He can carry this team for the most part, but the guys in front have to score and they have to protect him. Failure to do both of those is hurting him.
Travis Konecny, who leads the team with 19 points (7 goals, 12 assists), was injured in the Boston game on Thursday night. We’ll see if he is available to play. If he is out, all of the scoring falls on the shoulders of Kevin Hayes. If TK is out, this leaves the top four scorers from last year either hurt or gone (Claude Giroux). Ouch!
Projected Lineup
Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Joel Farabee
Owen Tippett – Noah Cates – Zack MacEwen
Max Willman – Morgan Frost – Kieffer Bellows
Nicolas Deslauriers – Lukas Sedlak – Patrick Brown
Ivan Provorov – Tony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Carter Hart
Montreal Canadiens
Record: 8-8-1 (17 points, 6th in Atlantic)
Many NHL fans feel that coming into the new season that this year is their year. “This year we’ve got a chance!” The Montreal Canadiens fans did not have those thoughts this summer. The Habs did select Juraj Slafkovsky first overall in the NHL draft. So far, he has scored three goals and one assist in 12 games. That’s less than Flyers’ rookie, Noah Cates, the 137th overall pick in 2017 (three goals and three assists).
Montreal is trying to stop their own losing streak. They’ve lost back to back games against New Jersey (5-1) and Columbus (6-4) after winning three in a row. Much like the Flyers, they’ve had trouble scoring goals and have been a very streaky team this season.
Nick Suzuki leads the way for Montreal with 11 goals and 10 assists. That’s two points better than the Flyers leading scorer, Konecny. Cole Caufield has nine goals and seven assists.
Montreal is weakest in its goaltending. Whereas the Flyers are blessed with Hart, the Habs are cursed with Jake Allen (5-6 record, 3.29 GAA, and .901 save percentage) and Sam Montembeault (2-3 record, 2.83 GAA .915 save percentage.).
Statistically speaking, these are two even teams that are trying to get themselves out a funk. While the Canadiens can use this game as a spring board before facing off against weaker teams coming up (Buffalo, Columbus, Chicago, San Jose), the Flyers will be facing tougher competition in November (Calgary, Washington, Pittsburgh, and two against the Islanders). For the Flyers, this is a big game to reset and restart. A loss here could signal a rough few weeks ahead. And looking ahead, December isn’t going to get any easier.
Projected Lineup
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach
Mike Hoffman – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher
Evgenii Dadonov – Sean Monahan – Josh Anderson
Michael Pezzetta – Jake Evans – Juraj Slavkovsky
Kaiden Guhle – David Savard
Mike Matheson – Joel Edmundson
Arber Xhakaj – Johnathan Kovacevic
Jake Allen
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 7 PM
Where: Bell Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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