The Philadelphia Flyers (23-17-9) wrap up their trip out West with a meeting with one of the league’s juggernauts, the Colorado Avalanche (34-5-9) at Ball Arena in Denver.

Philadelphia recently snapped its six-game losing streak and has played much better lately. It was a late-game collapse riddled with mistakes, leading to misfortune and a disastrous overtime loss vs. the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.

The Avalanche, who still have more overtime losses than regulation, have three of their five regulation losses packed into their past 10 games. To some, three losses in that stretch is considered good and even playoff-caliber hockey. For the Avalanche, that’s considered struggling. Over its past five games, Colorado is 2-1-2, with its last game being a loss vs. the Anaheim Ducks.

The Avalanche is an elite team that will provide quite the challenge for the Flyers. Puck drop is at 9:00 p.m. EST at Ball Arena. Here is how the Flyers are expected to line up.

Read More: ‘We Sank in Pressure Situations’: Flyers’ Haunting Mistakes Lead to Devastating Loss

Flyers projected lines & pairs @ Mammoth

Forwards

Trevor Zegras-Christian Dvorak-Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey–Sean Couturier–Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov–Noah Cates–Bobby Brink
Carl Grundstrom–Lane Pederson–Garnet Hathaway

Defensemen

Cam York–Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae–Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler-Noah Juulsen

Goaltenders

Sam Ersson
Aleksei Kolosov

Special Teams
PP1: Drysadale, Dvorak, Konecny, Brink, Zegras
PP2: York, Cates, Barkey, Tippett, Michkov

PK1: Cates, Tippett, York, Sanheim
PK 2: Hathaway, Konecny, Seeler, Juulsen

Things to watch

Before the game vs. the Mammoth, head coach Rick Tocchet said he would not be opposed to scratching players if the lack of discipline continued. Further, he did not seem too fond of Noah Juulsen’s roughing penalty post-game. With that in mind, could we see Hunter McDonald make his NHL debut on Friday?

Note: I left McDonald out of the projected lineup because there has been no word on the lineup for Friday. This is just food for thought.

Remember how I was talking about how good the Avalanche are? Well, their secret formula for success is pretty clear. If you average the most goals per game in the league, which they do, but also allow the fewest in the league, which they also do, it’s hard to lose games. This Avalanche team is very, very good.

The only basic stat that the Avs do not rank in the top 10 in the league in is power-play percentage. To me, that is strange, considering the talent the team possesses. Everything else, they are the best or near the best.

Looking back to the Flyers, Bobby Brink and Matvei Michkov looked really good on Wednesday. It may have been Michkov’s best skating game; he was pretty solid with the puck, too. I will be keeping a close eye to see if that line can get producing for the Flyers.

One player I’d like to see score: Trevor Zegras. It feels like he’s been an X-Factor all season. In a game against as tough an opponent as Colorado is, the Flyers need their top guys to score.

How to watch Flyers @ Avalanche

TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic

Puck drop is at 9:00 p.m. EST at Ball Arena in Denver.

Read More: PhHN Daily: Flyers’ Mistakes; New Panarin Landing Spot; Penguins Trade