Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (1-6-3) are home on Monday to take on Jared Bednar's Colorado Avalanche (5-2-1). This is first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference clubs.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
Two nights ago, the Flyers skated to their first victory of the season; a hard-earned 3-1 home decision over the Ottawa Senators. Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone had a goal and an assist apiece, while Dan Vladar made 25 saves to secure the win. Trevor Zegras added an empty net goal.
Colorado last played on Friday. Bednar's club enters this game coming off a 5-2 home win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Monday's game marks the start of a short two-game Eastern road trip. The Avs visit the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Tuesday.
Offense remains a challenge for the Flyers. Through 10 games, the club still has scored a mere 14 goals. Michkov leads the squad with four goals and five points. Martone (2g, 1a), Zegras (2g, 2a) and Christian Dvorak (2g, 1a) are the only other players with more than one goal to date.
On Tuesday, the Flyers made four roster moves. The team placed defenseman Cam York on IR retroactive to October 8. He remains day-to-day in the bigger picture but wasn't ready to return for Monday. The club recalled rugged defenseman Hunter McDonald from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Meanwhile, the Flyers loaned forward Jack Studnicka and defenseman Helge Grans to the Phantoms.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Monday evening.
1. Stacking shifts
Saturday's game marked the first time all season -- and least weighed on the balance of a full game -- that the Flyers were able to string together multiple positive shifts in a row, whether play was in neutral zone (angling check into coverage), the defensive zone (creating breakouts or at least pushing plays outside), or even the offense zone. The latter has been the most elusive, even as the others subtly showed signs of improvement in positive games. This process cannot stop with Saturday's game. There are still things to clean up and continue adding into the mix game-by-game.
2. Shooting mentality
Ottawa's Linus Ullmark's strong play in goal masked Philly's progress with a modest bottom line (two non-ENGs). But the Flyers looked much better on the attack last match than in any previous match. The biggest difference: shot-first mentality. For the most part, when a shooting opened up, Philly pulled the trigger. Previously there were too many "hope" plays or extra passes in low-percentage areas. Meanwhile, the Flyers had other players going to the "hard areas" at the house. It's nothing fancy, but needs to be established consistently. Saturday was a good step.
3. All hands on deck
The Flyers are a banged-up team, both at forward and defense. Up front, Travis Konecny (lower body) is on IR. Owen Tippett missed Saturday's game with an upper-body ailment. Tyson Foerster appeared to take a puck off his hand during the first period against Ottawa. He briefly left the game but returned for the second period. Sean Couturier seemed to get stretched out (lower-body) a bit awkwardly later in the game. Konecny remains out. The others are day-to-day, and potential game-time decisions against the Avalanche.
4. MacKinnon and Makar
More than anyone else, superstar center Nathan MacKinnon and elite offensive defenseman Cale Makar are the catalysts from whom the likes of Arturri Lehkonen (6g,8 points) have avenues to burn other teams in their own right. MacKinnon has already racked up 16 points in eight games (8g, 10a) while Makar (3g, 6a) has nine points from the back end. Meanwhile, Martin Necas owns 10 points (4g, 6a) in eight games.
