Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (6-5-1) are in Quebec on Tuesday to take on Martin St. Louis' Montreal Canadiens (9-3-0). The Flyers will look for their first road win of the 2025-26 season.
Game time at Bell Centre is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP.
The Flyers wrapped up a five-game homestand on Sunday. After winning each of the first three games, Philadelphia suffered back-to-back losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-2) and Calgary Flames (2-1).
The Flyers placed winger Tyson Foerster (lower-body injury) on Injured Reserve, retroactive to November 1. The club recalled defenseman Emil Andrae from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The Canadiens have won three games in a row and five of their last six. Coming off a 4-3 overtime home win on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, the Habs opened November with a stretch of playing eight of their first 10 games on home ice.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday evening.
1. Opposing shot/scoring chance suppression
The Flyers have generally done a good job over the first 12 games of the season in limiting opposition shots and scoring chances. The team ranks 11th in fewest shots allowed per game (26.6 on average).
The team has also dramatically lowered their goals against average (2.58 GAA, tied for 5th) compared to the same point last season (3.67, ranked 28th through 12 games).
Montreal ranks 9th in fewest shots allowed (25.8 on average) and tied for 15th in lowest goals against average (3.00 GAA).
This is the positive half of the equation.
2. Shot/chance generation
This is the flip side of the coin.
The Flyers need to do a much better job in creating their own shots, scoring chances and goals. Tocchet once again made no pretense after Sunday's game: that he wants to see more players get the "home plate" area between and below the dots.
"The will wasn't there the past few games. If you want to play in April or May, you have to play hard hockey. And I think we are playing easy ice. Some of our best players want to play the easy [perimeter] ice, not the hard ice," Tocchet said.
Entering Tuesday's match, the Flyers rank 32nd (last) in the NHL in shots per game (23.5) and tied for 27th in goals per game (2.58 average). Digging below the surface, the Flyers rank 28th in expected goals at 5-on-5, which reflects scoring chances from the high-danger areas of the attack zone.
Montreal has not generated many more shots than the Flyers (25.9 average, ranked 27th) or many more top quality chances (ranked 26th in expected goals at 5-on-5). However, they've been much more opportunistic in finishing their chances. The Habs' 3.67 goals per game average ranks 2nd in the NHL.
3. Konecny and company
The Flyers need more consistent production from Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov than they have received. All three wingers are vital to the Philadelphia attack, especially in the absence of Foerster.
Back-to-back Bobby Clarke Trophy winner, Konecny (four goals, eight points) scored the lone Flyers goal in Sunday's game against Calgary but has generally not played to the same standard he met in the first half of last season. Michkov (one goal, six points) seemed on the verge of a breakout two games ago but took a step backward over the weekend. The streaky Tippett (five goals, six points) started out on a hot but has just one point (0g, 1a) over the last five games.
The Flyers' most consistent offensive chance and point producer so far has been Trevor Zegras with 13 points (4g, 9a) through the first 12 games.
4. Special teams battle
The Flyers penalty kill has been outstanding so far. The power play has made progress from last year but remains inconsistent.
On the PK side, the Flyers enter Tuesday at a 90.5 percent success rate. That ranks No. 1 across the NHL. Montreal's penalty kill ranks 20th at 76.9 percent.
The Flyers power play ranks 20th at 18.9 percent. They've allowed three shorthanded goals to date, however, which lowers their net power play percentage to 13.5 percent. Meanwhile, the Canadiens power play ranks fifth at 28.6 percent without allowing a shorthanded goal so far.
