Flyers vs. Avalanche: Can they make it 10 against the league’s worst team?

Tonight at 10 p.m., the Philadelphia Flyers will hit the ice against the Colorado Avalanche in search of their 10th straight win. If they pull it off, it’ll be the first time in more than 30 years since they’ve won 10 games in a row.

That last 10-game streak came in October and November of 1985, in what ultimately became a 13-game win streak. This streak hitting double digits would certainly be a historic feat in franchise history.

And let’s be clear: the Flyers should win this game tonight. Yes, they are on the road in Colorado, a place where they are just 1-4-3 in the last 14 years. But the Avalanche are the worst team in hockey, with just 23 points in 27 games and just 60 goals scored in those games.

Then again, hockey is the dumbest game — and that’s what makes it the best game —  and this is probably exactly the one the Flyers could lose to end this streak. They’ll need to keep following the formula that’s gotten them to this point: solid goaltending and an elite power play.

Steve Mason will be back in goal tonight after the night off on Sunday against Detroit, and the top power play unit will get Shayne Gostisbehere back as its quarterback.

Colorado will start Calvin Pickard in net tonight. Regular starter Seymon Varlamov won’t even be dressed tonight with a groin injury suffered in a 51 save effort against Toronto over the weekend. Pickard has a .913 save percentage in 10 games so far this season.

The Flyers second-ranked power play could have a field day against this Avalanche team. Colorado has allowed 22 goals on the penalty kill this year, good for a 24th-ranked 79.2 success rate. Overall on offense, the Avs have just one player with 20 goals points or more — center Nathan MacKinnon. Him and fellow center Matt Duchene are the only true offensive threats on Colorado so far this season. They’re just not very deep, especially not when compared with a Flyers roster that has seven scorers above 15 points.

All the numbers stack up in the Flyers favor tonight. We’ll see if it leads to another win and a continued streak.

Tonight’s game is on The Comcast Network locally and 93.3 WMMR (sorry, the graphic above is wrong on that). Nationally and in Colorado it’s also on NBCSN, so you’ll be able to stream it via the NBC Sports app. We are guessing that they’re just going to take the Flyers broadcast, too.

Flyers lineup

Forwards

1. Michael Raffl – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
2. Travis Konecny – Brayden Schenn – Wayne Simmonds
3. Taylor Leier – Nick Cousins – Dale Weise
4. Chris VandeVelde – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Roman Lyubimov

Defense

1. Ivan Provorov – Andrew MacDonald
2. Brandon Manning – Shayne Gostisbehere
3. Radko Gudas – Michael Del Zotto

Goalies

1. Steve Mason
2. Anthony Stolarz

Scratches: Nick Schultz, Boyd Gordon

Injured: Michal Neuvirth, Sean Couturier, Meat Read, Mark Streit

Colorado lineup

Forwards

1. Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Rene Bourque
2. Mikhail Grigorenko – Matt Duchene – Mikko Rantanen
3. Blake Comeau – John Mitchell – Jarome Iginla
4. Andreas Martinsen – Carl Soderberg – Cody McLeod

Defense

1. Fedor Tyutin – Tyson Barrie
2. Patrick Wiercioch – Nikita Zadorov
3. Francois Beauchemin – Eric Gelinas

Goalies

1. Calvin Pickard
2. Spencer Martin