Playing their fourth game in the last six nights, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (16-9-6) are in Quebec on Tuesday to take on Martin St. Louis' Montreal Canadiens. This is the second match of the three-game season series between the teams. On Nov. 4 in Montreal, the Flyers prevailed by shootout, 5-4 (1-0).
Game time at Bell Centre on Tuesday is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP.
Coming into Tuesday's game, one can take a glass half-full or half-empty outlook about the Flyers' most recent games. On the one hand, the Flyers have earned at least one point from each of their last four games. They have played some very tough opponents of late.
On the flip side, Philly has lost each of their last three games beyond regulation. After dropping an overtime decision to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Flyers lost a pair of shootouts (both by 1-0 after 65-minute tie games) to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canadiens are playing their second game of a four-game homestand. The club has had a roller coaster month of December so far but is coming off a solid 4-1 win against the defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers to open the homestand.
For the month, the Habs are 4-3-1. Two of the wins (over Toronto and Winnipeg) came via shootout. The low point of the month was a 6-1 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday night.
1, The Dvorak Line
The trio with former Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak centering Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny has been the Flyers best line in recent weeks. They'll look to serve as offensive catalysts again on Tuesday night.
Zegras leads the Flyers in scoring with a team-high 13 goals and 32 points in 31 games played. He and Konecny are tied for the team assist lead with 19 apiece. Zegras has posted six points in the last five games (3g, 3a).
Konecny is second on the team with 27 points (8g, 19a) to date. Two-way center Dvorak, meanwhile, is third on the Flyers with 17 points (7g, 15a) and tops the team's centers with a 54.8 percent rate of winning faceoffs.
2. Special teams battle
This has been a frequent topic of conversation of late, especially on the power play side of the equation. Sooner or later, the Flyers will have to win a few games on the basis of generating some power play goals.
Dating back one month to Nov. 16, the Flyers power play has connected on just 11.8 percent of their opportunities, ranking next-to-last in the NHL over that span. For the season, the Flyers' power play has slipped down to 25th in the NHL (16.5 percent).
It all starts with winning the first faceoff on a power play. The Flyers have won just 38 percent of their power play faceoffs in the last month. Too often, Philly has had to regroup, attempt another offensive zone entry and try again to get set up offensively. That's a recipe for a struggling power play when it happens too often.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' penalty kill hit a snag in recent weeks, too (73.8 percent over the last month). However, the PK went 5-for-6 in Raleigh on Sunday. That's something off which the team can build for the games of this week.
That will be necessary. The Canadiens' power play has been red hot in recent weeks, topping the NHL over the last month at a 34.3 percent success rate since Nov. 16. For the season, Montreal's power play ranks fourth in the league at 26.4 percent efficiency.
The Montreal PK ranks 25th in the NHL at a 76.2 percent success rate. The Philly PK, which came through more than 85 percent of the time over the season's first two months, has dropped to 81.6 percent overall (14th).
3. Secondary scoring: Cates and Brink
The long-running line with Noah Cates centering Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink played a major role in the Flyers' early success this season.
The trio was split up after Foerster's first injury of the 2025-26 season. After getting hot again upon his return, Foerster suffered an upper-body injury in the Dec. 1 game against Pittsburgh. Foerster is expected to miss all of December and January as part of a projected two-to-three month recovery timetable.
Cates and Brink spent several weeks on different lines but have recently been back together. For the season, two-way center Cates (7g, 9a, 16 points, +10) is seventh on the Flyers' scoring leader board, while Brink (8g, 6a, 14 points) is tied for eighth with defensemen Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale.
Brink scored a goal in last Saturday's game against Carolina. Cates had excellent all-around games in the Flyers' wins over Buffalo (Dec. 3) and San Jose (Dec. 9), taking First-Star and Third-Star honors in those tilts.
That's not coincidental. When Cates shines, whether he scores or not, the Flyers as a whole tend to have good games.
4. Drysdale pushing the pace.
Jamie Drysdale has improved by leaps and bounds as an all-around NHL defenseman since the second half of last season. His offensive numbers aren't quite where they could be, but his puck-moving and off-puck games have been very good.
Drysdale is the key to the Flyers' second blueline pair. A strong game in Montreal would be a big boost for the club, especially if he also finds his way onto the scoresheet against Lane Hutson and company.
