Returning from a four-game road trip, Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (14-7-3) are home on Monday to take on Dane Muse’s Pittsburgh Penguins (12-7-5). This is the second of four meetings this season between the cross-state archrivals. On October 28, the Flyers skated to a 3-2 (2-1) home shootout win.

Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.

The Flyers won three of four games on their recent road trip. Most recently, the team recorded a 5-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Saturday.

On Saturday, two goals apiece from Owen Tippett (7th and 8th) and Matvei Michkov (7th and 8th) paced the Flyers offensively. Trevor Zegras (9th) also scored for Philadelphia. Dan Vladar (28 saves) backstopped the win in goal.

The Flyers have posted an 8-3-2 record at home to date. The team has posted points in nine of its last 11 games (7-2-2) and an 8-4-2 overall record in November.

The Penguins are 6-3-3 on the road so far this season. The team went 4-5-3 in November and 4-3-3 within its last 10 games.

Pittsburgh enters this game coming off a 7-2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs this past Saturday. Three unanswered Toronto goals in the second period broke the game open. In a losing cause, rookie Ben Kindel (PPG, 6th) and veteran superstar Sidney Crosby (16th) scored for the Penguins. Starting goalie Arturs Silovs (six saves on 10 shots) and Tristan Jarry in relief (10 saves on 13 shots) divided the labor in net.

Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Monday evening in Philly.

1. Balancing emotion and discipline

Things got feisty the last time the Flyers played the Penguins, as they so often have over the years. An end-of-overtime dust-up resulted in multiple players being disqualified from the shootout including Philadelphia shootout ace Zegras and Pittsburgh’s Crosby. There was also a combined eight power plays in that game.

On Monday, the Flyers will want to feed off the home crowd’s energy in their return from last week’s road trip. At the same time, after playing four road games in six nights, Philly will need to manage its own energy wisely.

2. Key Game for Konecny

Two-time defending Bobby Clarke Trophy winner Travis Konecny has had an uneven campaign, by his standards, in first halves of recent seasons. However, he’s coming off a strong game in the win over New Jersey this past Saturday. The Flyers need Konecny to be a positive tone setter against the Penguins, too.

3. Cates vs. Crosby

Noah Cates often draws the task of playing against an opponent’s top offensive line, whether it’s Crosby and the Penguins or Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers. The Penguins still present the dual challenge of contending with Evgeni Malkin’s line as well as Crosby’s.

The approach to line matchups that Tocchet and his staff take on Monday is worth tracking. How will the Sean Couturier and Christian Dvorak lines be deployed? Will Crosby see a steady diet of playing against Cates? Do the Flyers send Couturier head-to-head with Malkin? Could there be a mid-game switch? Or will the rotation be handled straight up with only selective line matching for certain shifts?

4. Early/late period goals

Goals in the first or last minutes of a period have a way of carrying over into subsequent team-wide play. Saturday’s game was a good example: see the effects of Michkov’s early second-period goal and New Jersey’s power play goal late in the same frame. Game management is always crucial, but especially so in a rivalry clash such as a Flyers/Penguins game.