Flyers vs. Canadiens NHL playoffs: Game 5 live stream, storylines, more

Flyers

Flyers can do something they haven't done since 2010 Eastern Conference Final

/ by Jordan Hall

Flyers

The Flyers need one more win over the Canadiens to earn their first playoff series victory since 2012.

They'll get three cracks at it, the first coming Wednesday in Game 5 of their best-of-seven first-round set with eighth-seeded Montreal.

Let's get into the essentials:

• When: 8 p.m. ET with Flyers Pregame Live at 7 p.m. ET • Where: Scotiabank Arena • Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia • Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app

• Wingers Nicolas Aube-Kubel and James van Riemsdyk were scratched for Tuesday's 2-0 Game 4 win.

It's unknown why either of them sat. For Aube-Kubel, it's possible he was dinged up after blocking two big shots in the team's 1-0 Game 3 win last Sunday.

"I’m mandated by the NHL guidelines not to comment on player availability," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said Wednesday in a video interview when asked about Aube-Kubel's status, "so I can’t help you."

The absence of van Riemsdyk — unless the 31-year-old is nursing some type of injury or is unfit to play — could have been performance related, although it is truly unknown. JVR was held out of the lineup for one of the three round-robin games and has played only 11:31 minutes per game, the second fewest on the team, during the tournament.

"I can’t comment about player availability," Vigneault said Wednesday. "I do think, like I’ve mentioned many times, James is working extremely hard. At this time, we’ve just decided for the lineup that we picked last night. I’m not going to comment on tonight."

James van Riemsdyk and Nicolas Aube-Kubel remain out tonight for Game 5. Same roster as Tuesday for Flyers.
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) August 19, 2020

• Carter Hart is 5-1-0 with a 1.24 goals-against average and .958 save percentage in the tournament.

• The Flyers' top goal producers will continue eyeing their first tallies of the tournament as Travis Konecny, Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux and van Riemsdyk have combined for 13 assists but no markers.

What should override the concerns about that storyline is the positives of the Flyers' depth contributions.

Flyers' playoff goal-scorers.

None were in top five during regular season and only two had double digits (Laughton, Voracek).

Sure, bigger guys can score more goals, but they haven't been ineffective and so many people have clamored for depth/secondary scoring for long time. pic.twitter.com/03be9UOsMk
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) August 19, 2020

• The Flyers have a power play percentage of 3.6 (1 for 28), worst in the playoffs, but they've also allowed 1.29 goals per game, fewest in the playoffs.

• During the regular season, the Flyers were 6-5-2 in the second game of back-to-back sets, while the Canadiens went 4-6-3 in such situations.

• The last time the Flyers won a playoff series in five games or fewer was the 2010 Eastern Conference Final, when they beat the Canadiens in five to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

Projected lineup

Forwards

Michael Raffl-Sean Couturier-Jakub Voracek

Joel Farabee-Kevin Hayes-Travis Konecny

Claude Giroux-Derek Grant-Scott Laughton

Connor Bunnaman-Nate Thompson-Tyler Pitlick

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov-Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim-Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg-Justin Braun

Goalies

Carter Hart

Brian Elliott