Back the Flyers as road favorites against the Canadiens on Thursday night

The Philadelphia Flyers got through a brutal stretch of their schedule relatively unscathed. The Flyers may have gone 2-3-2 in a seven-game jaunt that saw them play the Maple Leafs (twice), Bruins (twice), Rangers, Hurricanes and Panthers, but those six points were enough to keep Philadelphia in third-place in the Metropolitan Division for now.

The schedule lightens up for Philadelphia starting on Thursday night. The Flyers are a -155 road favorite in Montreal at the time of writing.

Box scores can often be misleading. At first glance, it looks like Philadelphia is scuffling right now. The Flyers have lost two of three and has allowed 12 goals in that span, but they’ve generally played pretty well. The Flyers were full-value in a 3-2 win against the Bruins on Saturday before being let down by porous goaltending in a better-than-it-looks loss to the Panthers on Sunday and they followed up a tough weekend with an unfortunate 6-5 loss in overtime against the Rangers on Tuesday.

Considering the schedule and opponents, it’s hard to be disheartened by three well-played games even if it just led to three points.

The most notable development of late is that Philadelphia’s 5-on-5 game looks to be back in great shape after it dipped a bit at the deadline. That should continue against a defensively-challenged Canadiens side that has struggled to push play in the right direction for large chunks of this season.

» READ MORE: Betting a big home run total from Trea Turner this season among best Phillies player futures

Philadelphia’s goaltending is a bit of a concern, especially with Sam Montembeault on the other end of the rink, but the Flyers should have a siginificant edge at 5-on-5 and they catch Montreal in a tough schedule spot after the Habs just spent 10 days on a road trip.

Philadelphia is typically a team you want to back as an underdog, but this team has earned the right to be this heavy of a road favorite with its recent play.

The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.