Montreal Canadiens seek revenge when they host the Philadelphia Flyers
The Montreal Canadiens will be looking to avenge last season's play-off series loss when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday 16 November.
Previous meetings and recent games
Last season the Flyers and Canadiens finished seventh and eighth in the conference respectively. Thanks to the heroics of then-Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak, and an improbable comeback for the Flyers
who were down three games to none against the Boston Bruins, the two teams met in the conference final with the Flyers beating the Canadiens in five games.
So far this season the Flyers and Canadiens are looking like they could finish number one and two in the conference as both have been impressive in the early part of this season. Each is currently in first
place in their division and both trail the Washington Capitals who lead the way in the East.
The Canadiens are riding a three-game win streak while the Flyers have won eight of their last nine games.
How they match up
When the two teams squared off in the play-offs last season it was a duel between two hot goalies – Halak for the Canadiens, and Michael Leighton for the Flyers. Halak is now playing for the St. Louis
Blues, while Leighton has been on injured reserve all season and has yet to play a game.
In Montreal, the torch has been passed to Carey Price who has shouldered virtually the entire load in goal for the Canadiens this season and has done a good job silencing his various critics. Only three
teams in the NHL have conceded fewer goals than Price and the Canadiens this season (Halak's Blues happen to be one of them) and for his hard work Price was recently honored as the NHL's first-star of the week.
Carrying most of the load for the Flyers has been rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky who has been impressive and already has 10 wins this season and a goals against average barely over 2.00.
In front of Bobrovsky is one of the NHL's best offences as only the Capitals have scored more goals so far this season. Ville Leino and Claude Giroux, who both had breakout performances in last year's
play-offs, have had tremendous starts to the season. Leino who had 11 points in 55 games with the Flyers and Red Wings last season already has 15 points in 17 games this season. Giroux who had 47 points last season is averaging more than point per game so
far. Then of course there's Mike Richards and Danny Briere, not to mention Jeff Carter who just signed an 11-year contract extension.
The Canadiens are coming off their biggest win of the season, a 7-2 demolishing of the Carolina Hurricanes. They did, however, suffer a major setback in that game as defenceman Andrei Markov, who had only
recently returned from a knee injury suffered in last season's play-offs, went out with an injury to the very same knee. Early reports have him missing as much as three months.
What to expect
If the Canadiens can silence the Flyers scoring and frustrate them offensively there's no reason the Canadiens can't keep their momentum going.
Canadiens forward Mike Cammalleri is plus-12 on the season, tied for first in the league, and he'll have a big game.
Prediction:
Canadiens win 3-2 in the shootout.
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