Hockey season is 82 games long, but for the Flyers, there's an outside chance it could get a tad longer.

With the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot still hanging in the balance, the NHL announced on Friday that a play-in game between the Flyers and Florida Panthers -- essentially, Game 83 -- could go down under the right circumstances. It's a long shot, and would require several highly specific outcomes, but the possibility is out there.

From NBC Sports:

Over the past few games, one of the Flyers' chief concerns has been an inability to play a full 60 minutes. Decent play for the first two periods, until a collapse in the 3rd.

Thursday's game was a bit of an exception to the rule, as the Flyers got off to (yet came close to recovering from) a sluggish start, one that saw them yield two goals in an 11-second span. Cam Atkinson also helped sink them with a hat trick, giving the Blue Jackets a tight 5-3 win.

There's no such thing as a convenient time for injuries to mount. And when you're a team looking to extend a point streak to nine games, you'll have to shake things up to have a chance to do that.

The Flyers changed several things up on Monday, acquiring Petr Mrazek from Detroit and recalling Oskar Lindblom from Lehigh Valley. Lindblom replaces Wayne Simmonds, who will be sidelined from 2-3 weeks, while Mrazek provides stability in net for the next few weeks as Michal Neuvirth and Brian Elliott recover.

Off the heels of an exciting 7-4 win against the Rangers on Sunday, the Orange and Black have a chance for points in their last nine games. That opportunity comes against the Montreal Canadiens, who six just six points away from the Eastern Conference's basement. This will be the second of three meetings this month between the Flyers and Habs, as they move through their season series pretty quickly.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.