Game 9: Montreal Canadiens @ Philadelphia Flyers
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Flyers region: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
As bad as the Canadiens’ start seemed, they are one win away from pulling their record back to an even .500 in the ninth game. Of course, to do that, they need to win on the second night of a back-to-back. Last season they were 1-11-1 in those games; and they’re so far 0-1 this year after losing to the Bruins in the second game of the campaign.
With Samuel Montembeault getting the win last night, the crease will go to Cayden Primeau in Philadelphia this evening, his fifth start versus the team his father, Keith, spent the last six years of his career with. Cayden is 2-1-1 in this matchup so far, but he will need an improvement in his form to improve that mark.
The good news for him is the Canadiens played better defensively in front of Samuel Montembeault last night in Montreal and Primeau may not face consistent, high-quality chances all game long. Even if he does, the Flyers have been struggling to keep pucks out of their own net this year. With Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov posting save percentages of .872 and .821, respectively, Philadelphia has turned to Alexei Kolosov to make his NHL debut after sporting an .875 mark in the AHL this year. The Canadiens can score goals when they create opportunities even versus good goaltenders, so it could be a high-scoring affair at Wells Fargo Center tonight.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
#13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#77 Kirby Dach |
#17 Josh Anderson |
#71 Jake Evans |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
#40 Joel Armia |
#35 Alex Newhook |
#91 Oliver Kapanen |
#55 Michael Pezzetta |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#51 Emil Heineman |
Left Defence |
Right Defence |
#48 Lane Hutson |
#58 David Savard |
#8 Mike Matheson |
#94 Logan Mailloux |
#72 Arber Xhekaj |
#47 Jayden Struble |
Starter |
Backup |
#30 Cayden Primeau |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scratched: Lucas Condotta
Injured: Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Patrik Laine, Juraj Slafkovský
Philadelphia Flyers projected lineup
Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
Travis Konecny |
Sean Couturier |
Matvei Michkov |
Owen Tippett |
Morgan Frost |
Garnet Hathaway |
Scott Laughton |
Ryan Poehling |
Joel Farabee |
Nicolas Deslauriers |
Noah Cates |
Tyson Foerster |
Left Defence |
Right Defence |
Travis Sanheim |
Rasmus Ristolainen |
Nick Seeler |
Jamie Drysdale |
Egor Zamula |
Erik Johnson |
Starter |
Backup |
Alexei Koloson |
Samuel Ersson |