The Philadelphia Flyers’ gauntlet is over and now it’s time to sail into the playoffs!

They enter Thursday’s clash with the Montreal Canadiens as a -162 favorite, a role they should fill for most of the final nine regular-season games.

Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny and Co. only have two games left against teams currently in playoff positions, which is why they are -520 to make the playoffs at FanDuel and -425 at DraftKings.

Thursday’s game presents the Flyers with a tremendous chance to start a hot streak to create momentum going into the postseason.

The Flyers catch the Canadiens in a rare let down spot following Montreal’s shocking 2-1 road win over the Colorado Avalanche.

Montreal put a ton of energy into keeping the lead on Tuesday night at altitude and then had to travel back home with one day off between games.

The Canadiens are 1-6 straight up this season in their first home game following a multi-game road run, and the only win came against the Arizona Coyotes.

You could just sit here and type that the “Canadiens stink out loud” and you wouldn’t need any trends to tell you the Flyers will win, and yes, you’re probably right on that one.

Montreal is second-to-last in the Eastern Conference and one of two teams with a below .500 record in the East. The last-place Columbus Blue Jackets are the other team with a dubious home mark.

The Habs faced the fourth-most shots and own the seventh-worst goals against mark in the NHL, so this should be a high-flying offensive matchup in favor of the Flyers. They peppered the Montreal net with 39 shots in their shootout win in south Philadelphia on January 10th, Owen Tippett had five shots on goal (shocker), and five different D-men had at least two shots on goal.

Montreal gives up the most shots on goal per game to centers. They also concedes the sixth-highest shot average to left wingers and seventh-highest shot average to defensemen.

Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, and Tippett are the targets for the left-wing matchup. The stats from the last few games aren’t great to use as a reference in this matchup because of the gauntlet against playoff teams.

The March 12th clash with the San Jose Sharks is good reference because they rank right beneath the Canadiens in shots allowed to left wingers. Tippett (8), Farabee (4) and Foerster (3) were all active in front of goal in that game.

Tippett’s shot on goal over/under sits at 3.5, while Farabee and Foerster are each at 2.5 with the over sitting at plus money.

Cam York could be worth targeting on the player prop market as well. He had seven shots on goal against the Rangers on Tuesday. His prop sits at over/under 1.5 shots on goal. York had multiple SOGs in three of the last four games and had five in that Sharks game that is the best recent reference for the Flyers against a bad team.

By the way, some of our favorite Pennsylvania online casino apps are extending hockey fandom into the world of online slots, with a number of NHL-themed blackjack and roulette games. BetMGM is a leader in sports-theme slots.