The Game: 7 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia and 97.5 The Fanatic
Ahem.
Good, now that that’s out of the way: let’s talk hockey.
Conveniently, the Flyers are playing alphabetically ordered teams this weekend: Minnesota precedes Montreal, after all. It’s the second half of a back-to-back for the Flyers and Canadiens (they hosted the St. Louis Blues yesterday), so both teams are coming in tired; Montreal probably more so from travel. The good news is that the Flyers played a very fun game yesterday and beat the Wild 7-5, with a hat trick from the captain, Sean Couturier.
The Habs, meanwhile, are last in the Atlantic Division with a 3-4-1 record and come into tonight’s game fresh of a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues. They have some exciting young talent in Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson (more on him later), and Nick Suzuki, but the team as a whole doesn’t scream “contender” yet as Montreal executes its own rebuild. Their offense has struggled out the gate (they have 23 goals on the season, to the Flyers’ 24), but the real issue is their defense.
Yikes! If anything, tonight provides an opportunity for the Flyers to build their goalscoring confidence, because the Canadiens clearly have zero interest in puck play in their own zone. They’ve also got the second worst 5-on-5 Corsi-for percentage in the league (41.27%) and the worst expected Goals-for percentage (37.74%!!!!!). It’s a bad team, folks–but the Flyers can’t afford to underestimate a weak opponent given their own rough start to the season.
Players to Watch
Joel Farabee
It’s hard to pin a Flyer who’s had a more unexpectedly disappointing start, but we’re going to go with Joel Farabee here. Farabee started last season on a heater, driving play and rush opportunities at a high level for months. Then, he disappeared from the All-Star break until the end of the season–and has started this season in the same slump. Maybe tonight’s the night he breaks out of his five-game point drought and gets himself back into the good graces of John Tortorella–even if it is on the right wing, for some reason.
Aleksei Kolosov
Folks, it may be happening: Aleksei Kolosov could get his first NHL start this evening. He and Emil Andrae were recalled from the Phantoms and, given how much Ivan Fedotov has struggled in net this season, there’s no reason not to try Kolosov in goal for a game–especially against a weak Canadiens team. After a summer of stories about contentiousness between him and the Flyers’ front office, this game could be the beginning of Kolosov proving he deserves to be an NHL goalie.
Also, the Flyers’ team goaltending can’t get much worse.
Lane Hutson
Ah, the wunderkind defenseman. There are still many who don’t believe in Hutson’s potential to be an elite NHL defender, but he’s trying to make his case and has five points (all assists) in eight games. At 5-foot-9 and just shy of 160 pounds, there aren’t a ton of NHL defensemen with Hutson’s mold that’ve succeeded, but Hutson’s got such incredible offensive instincts that he’s as likely as anyone to surmount those shortcomings and prove the doubters wrong. It’s also worth keeping an eye on him for Calder purposes: if he plays well enough, Hutson could end up a finalist next to Matvei Michkov.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Garnet Hathaway
Scott Laughton – Ryan Poehling – Joel Farabee
Nic Deslauriers – Noah Cates – Tyson Foerster
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus RistGOALainen
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Yegor Zamula – Erik Johnson
Aleksei Kolosov
(Sam Ersson)
Montreal Canadiens
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach
Alex Newhook – Oliver Kapanen – Joel Armia
Josh Anderson – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher
Emil Heineman – Christian Dvorak – Michael Pezzetta
Mike Matheson – Justin Barron
Lane Hutson – Logan Mailloux
Jayden Struble – David Savard
Cayden Primeau
(Sam Montembault)
Gameday Tunes
This one’s for the Habs fans still hung up on Michkov.
Stats via Natural Stat Trick
