The Flyers are on a two-game winning streak following John Tortorella’s firing. A natural bump after a coaching change. They’re still bottom five but it’s getting a little dicey over at Tankathon:

 

The Flyers host Nashville Monday night, so an important battle of the bottom five. It just means more. The Preds are a little bit detached from that group of Seattle/Philly/Buffalo/Boston/Pittsburgh/Anaheim, but they’ve only played 73 games and the Flyers and Penguins are the only teams in that cluster to play 75.

Here’s the remaining schedule for each team:

  • Flyers: vs. Preds, at Canadiens, at Rangers, vs. Islanders, at Senators, vs. Blue Jackets, at Sabres
  • Kraken: vs. Stars, at Canucks, at Sharks, at Kings, at Utah, at Vegas, vs. Blues, vs. Kings
  • Sabres: at Senators, vs. Lightning, vs. Bruins, vs. Hurricanes, at Blue Jackets, at Panthers, at Lightning, vs. Leafs, at Flyers
  • Bruins: vs. Caps, at Canadiens, vs. Canes, at Sabres, at Devils, vs. Blackhawks, at Penguins, vs. Devils
  • Penguins: at Blues, at Stars, at Blackhawks, vs. Blackhawks, at Devils, at Bruins, vs. Caps
  • Ducks: vs. Sharks, at Flames, at Canucks, vs. Oilers, vs. Flames, at Kings, vs. Avalanche, at Wild, at Jets

It’s not exactly murderer’s row for the Flyers, who only have two playoff teams on the remaining schedule, and they’re wild card squads. They actually have Tankathon’s 2nd easiest remaining strength of schedule, while the Sabres, Kraken, and Ducks are in the top five for most difficult remaining slate. The Bruins and Penguins are bottom half at 22nd and 24th easiest. The best case scenario over these seven final games is that Matvei Michkov puts up multiple points in Flyers losses, then the Flyers add a Calder and a top-five draft pick to the trophy case.