#6 Philadelphia Flyers (31-25-3, 65 pts) at #7 Montreal Canadiens (29-27-6, 64 pts)
Le Centre Bell - 7:00 PM ET - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TV: CSN Philly HD,CBC HD, RDS HD, NHL Network US HD
Radio: 610 WIP, XM 205
This is the open game thread.
Get Montreal reaction at Habs Eyes On The Prize
Gute nacht, freunde.
Tonight's game is going to be a fun one. There's a lot of bad blood still left over from last night when Darroll Powe knocked Jaroslav Spacek into next week. Montreal didn't take too kindly to that and when they realized they weren't going to win the game, they decided to get a little physical in front of Michael Leighton's net. You know emotions are high when Scott Gomez goes after Chris Pronger.
Of course, the Flyers are the bad guys because Mathieu Darche decided to tap Jeff Carter with his stick as the final few seconds ticked off the clock. Things escalated from there and we almost had a full on brawl, with Leighton even getting involved in the festivities.
The Habs and their crowd will have a lot of venom at their disposal as they usually do when the Flyers come to town and the team will have to be focused to come out with a victory. Heading into the two week Olympic break with a win and a four game streak would be huge, and to sweep a home and home with the team closest to you in the standings is even bigger. A win tonight and the Flyers complete all of those goals.
To do it, they'll need to do all the right things they did during the first and second periods last night. None of that third period lull crap, or during any part of the game tonight. Montreal won't let them get away with it tonight; not with the way the emotions will be. This one could feel like a playoff game.
The sieve, Mr. Carey Price, is on the bench tonight for Les Habitants. Enter Jaroslav Halak, matched up against Leighton for the Flyers.
There's no better way to head into the two-week long Olympic break than a win tonight. After the jump, line combinations, starting goalies, questions to answer and our in-game discussion thread.
Flyers Line Combinations
Gagne - Richards - Carcillo
Hartnell - Carter - Briere
JVR - Giroux - Asham
Powe - Betts - Laperriere
Pronger - Carle
Timonen - Krajicek
Bartulis - Coburn
Montreal Line Combinations - might be some differences due to injury
Darche - Plekanec - KostitsynPyatt - Gomez - Gionta
Lapierre - Moore - Desharnais
Moen - Metropolit - D'Agostini
Subban - O'Byrne
Spacek - Hamrlik
Davison- Fraser
Starting Goaltenders
Questions To Answer
- Does the game live up to the hype, physically?
- There were rumors that the Canadiens wanted Jeff Carter in a trade for Jaroslav Halak earlier this year. Can Carter prove, one-on-one against Halak, that the Flyers have made the right decision in not making that trade?
- Any mention of Mike Boone's Hitler reference during the CSN broadcast tonight?
- Hey, power play. Wanna come out and play tonight?