The Philadelphia Flyers (6-5-1) face the Montreal Canadiens (9-3-0) at Bell Centre on Tuesday night, seeking their first road win of the 2025-26 season. Montreal aims for a fourth straight victory, highlighted by Cole Caufield's 300th career game. Projected lineups feature key returns and injuries for both sides.
The matchup pits Rick Tocchet's Flyers against Martin St. Louis' Canadiens at 7 p.m. ET, broadcast on RDS, TSN2 and NBCSP. Philadelphia wrapped a five-game homestand with losses to Toronto (5-2) and Calgary (2-1) after winning the first three. The Canadiens, fresh off a 4-3 overtime win against Ottawa, have won three in a row and five of their last six, including a league-first five overtime victories in their first 12 games.
Projected Lineups
Flyers forwards: Owen Tippett — Christian Dvorak — Trevor Zegras; Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Bobby Brink; Nikita Grebenkin — Noah Cates — Travis Konecny; Rodrigo Abols — Jacob Gaucher — Garnet Hathaway. Defensemen: Cam York — Travis Sanheim; Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale; Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen. Goalies: Dan Vladar, Aleksei Kolosov.
Canadiens forwards: Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky; Alex Newhook — Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov; Zach Bolduc — Kirby Dach — Brendan Gallagher; Josh Anderson — Jake Evans — Joe Veleno. Defensemen: Mike Matheson — Noah Dobson; Jayden Struble — Lane Hutson; Arber Xhekaj — Alexandre Carrier. Goalies: Sam Montembeault, Jakub Dobes.
Key Notes and Stats
Scratches for Flyers include Nicolas Deslauriers, Egor Zamula and Adam Ginning; Emil Andrae was recalled from Lehigh Valley. Injuries: Flyers' Rasmus Ristolainen (triceps), Samuel Ersson (lower body), Tyson Foerster (lower body, on IR retroactive to Nov. 1); Canadiens' Kaiden Guhle (lower body), Patrik Laine (lower body). Montreal dresses the same 18 skaters for the fifth straight game, with Montembeault starting his second in a row.
Flyers rank 11th in fewest shots allowed (26.6 per game) and tied for fifth in goals-against average (2.58). However, they are last in shots per game (23.5) and tied for 27th in goals per game (2.58). Trevor Zegras leads Philadelphia with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 12 games; Dan Vladar has a 2.11 GAA and .924 save percentage. Canadiens rank ninth in shots allowed (25.8) and second in goals per game (3.67), with their power play at 28.6% (fifth in NHL). Caufield ties for the league lead with 10 goals; Christian Dvorak, in his first Flyers season, has six points.
Tocchet noted post-Calgary: "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."
Montreal's power play has clicked at 55.6% since Ivan Demidov joined the top unit on Oct. 23. The Canadiens won last season's series 2-1; this year's three-game set starts Tuesday.