5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Avalanche

In the fourth game of a five-game homestand, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (8-12-5) will host Jared Bednar's defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche (13-8-1) at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in Philadelphia. The Flyes and Avalanche will rematch on Dec. 13 at Ball Arena in Denver.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Building from Islanders and Devils games.
When a team has lost 12 of its last 13 games, it can be tough to find positives to discuss. Discussing moral victories rings hollow pretty quickly. That said, the Flyers have played two of their last three games with strong commitment to structure.
They broke their 10-game winless streak with a stellar effort throughout the lineup in a 3-1 win over the New York Islanders last Tuesday. On Thursday, the Flyers played a competitive first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning before getting dominated in a lopsided second period on the way to a 4-1 loss. On Saturday, the Flyers outplayed the New Jersey Devils for the decided majority of the game but a five-minute lapse early in the third period resulted in a 3-2 defeat. A would-be game-tying goal for Joel Farabee was disallowed for goaltender interference by Morgan Frost.
The Flyers' single biggest problem is not hard to pinpoint: The lowest-scoring team in the NHL (2.36 goals per game), Philadelphia has virtually no margin for error in most of the games they play. Scoring three goals in a game shouldn't feel like a bonanza but the Flyers have only managed at least three goals in three of the last 13 games.
2. Reinforcements coming?
The Flyers had a complete off-day on Sunday. They will hold an optional morning skate on Monday at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees.
Cam Atkinson (upper-body injury) has been medically cleared to return to play. According to the player, it's now a matter of getting to a point -- after missing the vast majority of training camp and the entire regular season to date -- where he is able to contribute to the Flyers' lineup at his accustomed standards. Atkinson's availability is day to day after missing the first 25 games. .
James van Riemsdyk underwent surgery on Oct. 28 to repair a broken left index finger. His return-to-play timetable was estimated at five weeks. After missing the last 19 games, he is now close to returning.
Atkinson has been on the active roster the entire season, so no roster moves will be necessary to reinstall him in the lineup when he is ready. JVR is still on the Injured Reserve (IR) list. When he is placed on the active roster, the Flyers will have to subtract a player. Max Willman and Tanner Laczynski are candidates for AHL assignment to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms when that time comes.
Regardless of who is in the lineup, the Flyers have to make the Avalanche earn their real estate and earn their goals. Philly generally did a strong job of that in the back-to-back with the Islanders and the last game against the Devils despite going 1-2-0 in those games. The Flyers can't afford many turnovers. The goalie, whether it's Carter Hart or Felix Sandström, cannot allow off-angle goals or that leaks through between their pads or under their arm.
3. Staying out of the penalty box.
In Saturday's game, the Flyers managed to win the special teams battle against the Devils by going 1-for-3 on the power play (breaking an 0-for-20 drought) and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. That's been a far-too-rare accomplishment for the Flyers over the last month. For the season, the team enters Monday's game ranked last in the NHL at a 14.1 success rate on the power play and 23rd on the penalty kill at 74.4 percent.
The Avalanche's penalty kill has been nothing special. The team ranks one spot ahead of the Flyers at 76.5 percent on the PK. The power play, however, is a juggernaut. The Avalanche boast the NHL's top-ranked power play, connecting at an eye-popping 32.5 percent success rate (26-for-80).
The Avs do a disportionate amount of their scoring damage on the power play. They've actually scored fewer five-on-five goals than the Flyers (Philly has tallied 42 goals at 5-on-5 while the Avalanche have scored 37). Colorado, however, is a team plus-three at full strength (37 GA/ 34 GA, while the Flyers are minus seven at 42 GA/ 49 GA). Overall, the Avs rank 13th in the NHL at 3.32 goals per game.
Plain and simple: If the Flyers get into penalty trouble in Monday's game, they are in deep trouble. On the flip side, at least on paper, they have more of a fighting chance if they keep penalties to a bare minimum. No ticky-tack slashes. No careless high sticks. No housekeeping penalties (too many men on the ice) or delay of game. No lazy hooking or holding penalties.
Playing against a team with Colorado's talent level, staying out of the box is often easier said than done. However, it's a must for the Flyers if they are to be competitive in this game.
4. Flyers line play
With the Flyers starting to get into the lineup more of their NHL roster that was projected before the season, they're gradually having to rely less on players who ideally slot in fourth-line roles to play in the top six. Last game, the starting fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers and Zack MacEwen flanking checking center Patrick Brown looked more like what a "normal" fourth line should look like.
Actually, against the Devils, the first (in the ongoing long-term absence of Sean Couturier), third and fourth lines seemed better matched up to one another's games than many of the other combos the Flyers have had to start by necessity. This no doubt contributed to why the Flyers were at least able to string together many strong shifts against the Devils even as scoring goals remained elusive.
Getting Atkinson and/or JVR back could only help. The Flyers' ostensible starting second line last game was still more of an emergency-level combination than one they'd start with a healthier roster. Due to the Flyers' lack of center depth and the ongoing usage of Kevin Hayes on a wing (where he's been playing well), Lukas Sedlak may remain in the upper end of the lineup. That's not ideal, but Sedlak is a capable two-way player who can at least fill in higher in the lineup.
Beyond that, the third line combination in the New Jersey game of Scott Laughton and Farabee with Frost showed hints of good chemistry. All three players have struggled to convert scoring chances into goals this season but Farabee of late seems to be recovering his game and Laughton's abilities to play with pace and create pressure opened up operating room for Frost. The line created its share of positive shifts against the Devils but (disallowed goal aside) ended up with nothing to show for it on the scoresheet.
All three of these players (but especially Frost) are in the same boat, along with Owen Tippett and Noah Cates. The Flyers are a team that MUST score by committee, and these players collectively have to contribute with a certain amount of regularity even if are individual peaks and valleys.
Despite being involved in a fairly high number of scoring chances, Frost has a mere one goal and two assists after opening night. Tippett has now gone pointless in his last seven games. Farabee broke a drought with four points in five games (1g, 3a) but has one point (1g, 0a) over his most recent five games. Veteran forward Laughton missed six games with an upper-body injury but has been back in the lineup for the last three matches. Dating back before the injury, he has not scored a goal in his last 14 games, and has four assists in that span.
After starting the season with just one point (1g, 0a) and five shots on goal through the first 11 games, Cates has posted eight points (2g, 6a) in his last 14 games including a promotion to play in the No. 1 power play unit (0 ppg, 2 ppa). He has 13 shots on goal over the last 14 games. Cates' defensive play and forechecking work in some of the toughest matchups on the team have been very strong.
Offensively, though, Cates is yet another player in the large group of forwards who need to add more supplementary offense beyond Hayes' team leading 25 points in 25 games (8g, 17a) and Travis Konecny's 21 points in 19 games (9g, 12a).
The Flyers' starting line combinations against Colorado will, as usual, be listed in tonight's Postgame 5. For the sake of reference, these were the starting lines against New Jersey:
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
71 Max Willman - 23 Lukas Sedlak-74 Owen Tippett
21 Scott Laughton - 48 Morgan Frost - 86 Joel Farabee
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown 17 Zack -MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche are currently in fourth place in the Central Division with 27 points, six points behind the division-leading Dallas Stars but with three games in hand. Colorado is 6-4-0 over its last 10 games and 2-2-1 over the last five.
Monday's game is the third and final game of an eastern road trip for the Avalanche. The club defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4, last Thursday. On Saturday, the Avalanche dropped a 5-1 decision to the Boston Bruins, who remained undefeated (14-0-0) on home ice this season.
In the Boston game, the Avalanche trailed 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 after two periods as David Pastrnak struck for power play and even strength goals. In the early stages of the third period, Andrew Cogliano (6th) scored on a broken rush directly off a Boston turnover after breaking up the play. Colorado drew no closer, and the Bruins pulled away again. Peppered with 40 shots by Boston, Pavel Francouz stopped 35 in a losing cause. The Avs mustered 25 shots against Linus Ullmark at the other end of the ice.
The Avalanche, as one would expect, have been led offensively this season by Nathan MacKinnon (8 goals, 25 assists, 33 points in 22 games), Mikko Rantanen (14 goals, 17 assists, 31 points) and defenseman Cale Makar (6 goals, 17 assists, 23 points). Alexandar Georgiev has appeared in 16 games in goal, posting an 11-3-1 record, 2.58 GAA, .922 save percentage and one shutout to date.
Colorado has an extensive injury list of its own. The biggest absences are team captain Gabriel Landeskog (knee surgery in October), Valeri Nichushkin (ankle surgery in November) and Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Lehkonen, who has posted seven goals and 18 points through the season's first 22 games, was banged up in Saturday's game in Boston. He is considered questionable for the game in Philadelphia. On Sunday, the Avalanche recalled veteran winger Charles Hudon from the AHL's Colorado Eagles.
Other notable absences for the Avalanche: Josh Manson (IR), Darren Helm (IR), Evan Rodrigues (lower body), Bowen Byram (lower body, week to week), and Kurtis MacDermid (out 4-to-6 weeks from Nov. 13 with a lower-body injury).
Potential starting lineup (subject to change):
93 Jean-Luc Foudy - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
11 Andrew Cogliano - 37 JT Compher - 25 Logan O'Connor
54 Charles Hudon - 18 Alex Newhook - 47 Alex Galchenyuk
22 Dryden Hunt - 12 Jayson Megna - 36 Anton Blidh
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
26 Jacob MacDonald - 88 Andreas Englund
40 Alexandar Georgiev
39 Pavel Francouz