Flyers-Canadiens 5 things: Is now the time to bench key players?

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Flyers (25-20-6) vs. Canadiens (30-14-7)
7 p.m. on CSN, CSNPhilly.com and the NBC Sports App; Pregame Live at 6:30

The Flyers will have a different look Thursday night when they welcome the Montreal Canadiens to the Wells Fargo Center.

Let's get into that and more with five things to know for the matchup.

1. Benching the youth
Shayne Gostisbehere, last season's Calder Memorial Trophy (top rookie) runner-up, will serve his third benching of the season.

Travis Konecny, one of the team's prized rookies and top playmakers, will serve his second.

Yes, head coach Dave Hakstol has elected to sit the 23-year-old Gostisbehere and 19-year-old Konecny vs. the fleet-footed Canadiens, in favor of 28-year-old Dale Weise and 34-year-old Nick Schultz. This comes against the Atlantic Division's first-place club and with the Flyers clinging to the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot by one point with 31 games to go.

Gostisbehere is enduring a sophomore slump but has been better his past four games, while Konecny committed a bad turnover in Tuesday's 5-1 setback to the Hurricanes and seems to be paying for it.

Some interesting decisions to open a big five-game homestand.

2. Homeland security
The Flyers will want to take advantage of these five consecutive games at the Wells Fargo Center, where they are 15-7-3 compared to 10-13-3 away from it.

Following this season-long homestand, the Flyers play 15 of their final 26 games on the road.

Last season, the Flyers took advantage of six straight home games from Feb. 25 to March 7 by going 5-1-0. They squeezed into the postseason on the second-to-last day of the regular season.

"The homestand we had last year was successful and kind of put us in the playoff spot," Claude Giroux said Wednesday. "Hopefully, we're looking for the same thing."

3. A look at Montreal
The Canadiens pose a serious challenge, ranking in the top 10 of the NHL in power-play percentage (23.4 — third), goals against per game (2.47 — sixth) and goals for per game (3.02 — seventh).

However, Montreal has been up and down lately, as has its typically dominant goaltender. The Canadiens, coming off a 5-2 win over the Sabres on Tuesday, have not won back-to-back games since Jan. 4-7 and are 5-5-1 over their last 11 contests.

After a lights-out start to the season, goalie Carey Price, the 2014-15 Hart Memorial Trophy (NHL MVP) winner, has come back to earth a bit, going 3-5-1 with a 3.23 goals-against average and .901 save percentage in his previous nine outings.

Still, Price is one of the best in the game. He's 23-10-5 this season with a 2.34 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.

4. Keep an eye on ...
Flyers: How about Michael Raffl? The complementary forward is without a point over his past 10 games but has four goals in seven career games against Montreal.

Canadiens: Center Alex Galchenyuk returns to the lineup after missing three straight games with an aggravated knee injury. The 22-year-old has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 13 career games against the orange and black.

5. This and that
• Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth is 6-5-2 with a 2.36 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in 14 lifetime matchups with the Canadiens.

• Price is 13-9-0 with a 2.60 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 23 career games against the Flyers.

• Both Gostisbehere and Konecny scored goals the last time the Flyers faced Montreal, which was a 5-4 loss back on Nov. 5.

• The Flyers are 7-0-1 in their last eight home games against the Canadiens.

• The Flyers are 0-2-0 against Montreal this season but both defeats were on the road.

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