PREVIEW 8:00 AM EDT
The NHL Draft lottery-bound Philadelphia Flyers (17-21-3) are on the road tonight, taking on the playoff-bound Montreal Canadiens (26-10-3) at the Bell Centre. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. and will broadcast locally on CSN Philly and nationally in Canada on French-language sports network RDS.
This is the third and final meeting between the teams this season. In the previous two meetings, each team won on its on home ice.
On Feb. 16, the hosting Habs had little trouble dispatching the Flyers by a 4-1 count despite the unavailability of flu-riddled starting goaltender Carey Price. In that game, backup Peter Budaj made 18 inartistic saves when called upon for a stop. In the meantime, the team in front of him skated circles around the Flyers and methodically picked apart Brian Boucher. David Desharnais, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec and Rene Bourque scored for the Canadiens. Danny Briere got the lone tally for Philly.
On April 3 in Philly, the Flyers staged a comeback 5-3 win. Erik Gustafsson's second career NHL proved to be the game winner. On the play, Gustafsson threw the puck at the net, with Matt Read parked in front. The puck deflected in off a Montreal defenseman. The winning goal was scored less than two minutes after a Wayne Simmonds skate deflection on the doorstep of Carey Price's net knotted the score at 3-3 with 5:06 remaining on the clock. Sean Couturier, Simon Gagne and Jakub Voracek (empty net goal) also scored for the Flyers. Alexei Emelin, Brandon Prust and David Desharnais tallied for Montreal.
The Flyers enter tonight's game mired in a four-game losing streak. Philly has scored a total of three goals in that span -- and no more than one in any game. The team's over-reliance on the power play to carry the offense has hurt them of late, because the Flyers have gone cold on the man advantage over the course of the losing streak. Meanwhile, the team has still struggled to score at even strength and has remained prone to ill-timed defensive breakdowns.
Unlike the Flyers, the Habs have something to play for the rest of the regular season. They enter tonight one point ahead of the Boston Bruins for first place in the Northeast Division and the second seed in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens are coming off an ugly 5-1 loss to the Maple Leafs in their last game. Overall, Montreal is 6-4-0 in its last 10 games. The Canadiens bring a 13-5-3 home record into tonight's game, while the Flyers have the NHL's second-worst road record at 5-15-1. Only Colorado has been worse away from home.
The Flyers will be without defensemen Nicklas Grossmann (concussion), Braydon Coburn (separated shoulder) and Andrej Meszaros (torn rotator cuff) for the rest of the season. They will also be without forwards Max Talbot (broken leg) and Zac Rinaldo (high ankle sprain) the remainder of the way.
For Montreal, Colby Armstrong (IR, leg), Raphael Diaz (IR, concussion) and Alexei Emelin (knee) are all out of the lineup. Yannick Weber (knee) has been upgraded to questionable.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
12 Simon Gagne - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
19 Scott Hartnell - 10 Brayden Schenn - 48 Danny Briere
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 18 Adam Hall - 9 Mike Knuble
44 Kimmo Timonen - 29 Erik Gustafsson
38 Oliver Lauridsen - 22 Luke Schenn
23 Kent Huskins - 3 Kurtis Foster
30 Ilya Bryzgalov / 35 Steve Mason
CANADIENS
17 Rene Bourque - 14 Tomas Plekanec - 21 Brian Gionta
67 Max Pacioretty - 51 David Desharnais - 11 Brendan Gallagher
27 Alex Galchenyuk - 81 Lars Eller - 73 Michael Ryder
32 Travis Moen - 24 Jeff Halpern - 8 Brandon Prust
26 Josh Gorges - 76 P.K. Subban
79 Andrei Markov - 55 Francis Bouillon
40 Nathan Beaulieu - 44 Davis Drewiske
31 Carey Price
[30 Peter Budaj]
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