Canadiens vs. Flyers: Game preview, start time, Tale of the Tape, and how to watch

Game 76: Montreal Canadiens vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Flyers region: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Streaming: ESPN+, CityTV, Sportsnet+

The Montreal Canadiens played the Philadelphia Flyers the same day the Metropolitan Division team fired head coach John Tortorella. That night, the Flyers snapped a six-game losing streak with a 6-4 win on home ice, and have now turned that into a three-game winning streak by sweeping their homestand.

Canadiens fans watched as Matvei Michkov scored two goals and added an assist that night. He’s made a multi-point performance a feature of this run, adding a total of four goals and three assists to his rookie-season total since his first NHL coach was dismissed. He did have points in three straight before Tortorella left the team, so you can’t say his current play is all due to the change behind the bench. But it was a team that had won just four games since the 4 Nations before nearly matching that total in one week.

Flyers fans must be torn between wanting to see their developing superstar do well and wanting the highest draft pick possible to give him some support. This winning streak is the difference between ranking 14th in the Eastern Conference as they currently do and dead last if they had won just once in that sequence at Wells Fargo Arena. Keeping Tortorella in place may have been the best way to see out the season without getting a late-season bump in the team’s performance, but after an argument between Tortorella and Cam York, Daniel Brière felt it was necessary to improve the environment of the players already in place over worrying about future ones who haven’t even been drafted yet. Yet unlike the Bruins whom the Canadiens just played, the Flyers are set up better for some immediate prospect help, holding seven picks in the first two rounds of this summer’s draft. Even if they don’t get one of the top selections, they will add a large quantity of potential NHLers in the summer.

As the Flyers still try to figure out the steps of their rebuild, Montreal’s is coming together nicely. Their star rookie, Lane Hutson, still leads the scoring race among first-year players despite Michkov’s outburst because the defencemen had back-to-back three-point games at the same time. Ivan Demidov continues to score in the KHL post-season, while Oliver Kapanen has returned to the NHL after a great season in the SHL, Yesterday, one of their top prospects, Jacob Fowler, signed a deal to join the Laval Rocket, the Habs’ AHL team that features several prospects and is counting down the points to securing a league regular-season title. While this is going on, Montreal is in the driver’s seat in the race to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

To hold that position, Montreal needs to channel the same level they played at in the second period versus Boston. They took full control of that frame to score almost as many goals (two) as the Bruins had shots (three). The margin between the two teams won’t be quite as great today, but it is there, and the Canadiens need to take advantage of it.

There’s a chance for Montreal to really grab a firm hold of the second wild-card if they beat two teams that are wrapping up disappointing years. Philadelphia and the Nashville Predators expected a lot more from their seasons, but are now relegated to trying to spoil the aspirations of teams like Montreal as we enter the final stretch. The Canadiens learned what happens to such a team when they decide to take a game over, and once again the plan should be to dispirit their opponent by outworking a lineup they already outmatch on paper.

The Detroit Red Wings and the New York Islanders earned regulation wins on Friday. That was critical for each team as they just about have to run the table the rest of the way to have a shot of making the post-season. The top three teams in this race are all in action on Saturday, starting with the Rangers visiting the New Jersey Devils in a matinée.

Record needed for 88 points

• (8) Montreal Canadiens: 3-3-1 (81 pts., 7 GR)
• (9) New York Rangers: 4-2-1 (79 pts., 7 GR)
• (10) Columbus Blue Jackets: 5-2-1 (77 pts., 8 GR)
• (11) Detroit Red Wings: 5-1-1 (77 pts., 7 GR)
• (12) New York Islanders: 5-0-2 (76 pts., 7 GR)