Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
Game 13: Montreal Canadiens vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Flyers region: NBCSP
Streaming: ESPN+, TSN+
It wasn’t the type of performance from Samuel Montembeault on Saturday night that put an end to concerns about his play this season, but it was the first time in four starts that he allowed fewer than four goals, and it did come with a win, and those were at least signs of progress. Now, for the first time since the third and fourth games of the season, he’s called on for consecutive starts, taking the crease against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers currently rank as the worst team in the Eastern Conference, yet they have won half the games they’ve played so far and have a .542 points percentage. The opening month of the season has shown that there may not be any truly elite teams in the east at least to start, but there’s no bad team everyone can harvest points from either. The difference from Montreal at the top of the conference to the Flyers is just five points, adding the pressure to perform on a nightly basis when every point matters.
Montreal will need to keep its number-two-ranked offence in gear to break down what has been stingy defence from the Flyers so far this season. They allow just over two-and-a-half goals per game, and the league’s best penalty kill is a big reason for that. Those immovable four-man units will go up against Montreal’s power play that has been virtually unstoppable, scoring five goals over the course of the current three-game winning streak.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#20 Juraj Slafkovský
#15 Alex Newhook
#91 Oliver Kapanen
#93 Ivan Demidov
#76 Zachary Bolduc
#77 Kirby Dach
#11 Brendan Gallagher
#17 Josh Anderson
#71 Jake Evans
#90 Joe Veleno
Left Defence
Right Defence
#8 Mike Matheson
#53 Noah Dobson
#47 Jayden Struble
#48 Lane Hutson
#72 Arber Xhekaj
#45 Alexandre Carrier
Starter
Backup
#35 Samuel Montembeault
#75 Jakub Dobeš
Injured: Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine
Philadelphia Flyers projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
Owen Tippett
Chrisitian Dvorak
Trevor Zegras
Mavei Michkov
Sean Couturier
Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin
Noah Cates
Travis Konecny
Rodrigo Abols
Jacob Gaucher
Garnet Hathaway
Left Defence
Right Defence
Cam York
Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler
Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae
Noah Juulsen
Starter
Backup
Dan Vladar
Aleksei Kolosev
