Back the Flyers to end their recent slide against the Canadiens on Tuesday

The Philadelphia Flyers have four games left to save their once-promising season.

Losers of seven in a row and 10 of their last 12, the Flyers can’t afford to drop any points over their last four contests of the campaign. Philadelphia is stuck on 83 points, which puts it one back of the Detroit Red Wings for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Further complicating matters is the fact that there are five teams sitting between 83 and 85 points as of Tuesday evening.

The Flyers are a -135 favorite for their must-win game in Montreal on Tuesday.

There’s plenty of issues that have been plaguing the Flyers of late, but the biggest red flag is the goaltending. Carter Hart was suspended in January after he turned himself into police for his involvement in the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal and that left rookie Samuel Ersson as the team’s de facto starter.

The 24-year-old Swede performed admirably for a long stretch, but things have come undone for Ersson of late. The Flyers have tried Cal Petersen and Felix Sandstrom in goal, too, but neither netminder showed much promise. That led the team to sign their 2015 draft pick Ivan Fedotov to an entry-level contract just a few weeks ago.

Fedotov had strong numbers in Russia this season, but he had never played a professional game in North America before last week.

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With Ersson in poor form and Fedotov a complete unknown, the Flyers had almost no margin for error. Every mistake ended up in the back of their net and that has cost them dearly. What’s more discouraging is this poor run of form has come against an easy stretch of schedule. Philadelphia has lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens during this seven-game slide.

It isn’t just the goaltending that’s been an issue, though. The Flyers are also really struggling to take advantage of the scoring chances that they do create. Philadelphia has scored just 31 goals in their last 12 contests and five of those came in one game.

The good news for Philadelphia is that Tuesday’s opponent should provide the type of matchup that can spur this team out of its slump. The Canadiens have some clinical finishers and a strong goaltender, but the team has been messy defensively all season.

Despite their poor form, the Flyers have continued to play decently at 5-on-5, like they have all season. I’d expect that to continue against a team that generally struggles to drive play in the right direction.

Philadelphia closed as a -162 favorite in this exact matchup two weeks ago, so this looks like a good buy-low opportunity on a desperate squad.

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