Saturday Night Rookie Showdown In Montreal
Matvei Michkov attempts to score on Jakub Dobes - Photo credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn ImagesThe Montreal Canadiens will be back in action at the Bell Centre on Saturday night when they host the Philadelphia Flyers. While the Pennsylvania outfit’s season was going nowhere, they haven’t lost a game since firing coach John Tortorella, winning three games in a row. One of those three games was against the Habs, but the Sainte-Flanelle has won six of the last 10 duels between the two sides.
However, they haven’t played since March 31, meaning they should be well rested, but the break might interfere with their momentum. Meanwhile, the Canadiens are also on a three-game winning streak. They’ve seen Oliver Kapanen head back to Montreal after spending most of his season in the SHL, and on Friday morning, they announced that blue-chip prospect Jacob Fowler had agreed to terms with the organization.
The team had a day off yesterday, so there was no word about potential lineup changes, but it would be shocking if St-Louis decided to make some after his team delivered its most dominant win of the season, unless of course Josh Anderson’s wife goes into labour, which could happen any day now. One thing to remember is that Saturday’s tilt is the first part of a back-to-back.
After the game, the team is scheduled to take off for Nashville at 11:45 ET and land there at 12:30 AM HC. The duel with the Nashville Predators is scheduled for 6:00 PM HC. Will Samuel Montembeault be able to tend the net for both games? The coach doesn’t seem keen on making a goalie swap since Jakub Dobes has struggled lately, but time will tell.
Montembeault has only faced Philadelphia three times, and he has a 2-0-0 record to show for it, with a 3.34 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage. As for Dobes, he was on duty last month when the Flyers beat the Canadiens 6-4. That was his only game against Saturday night’s visitors, so his numbers aren’t great: 6.30 GAA and .800 SP. He gave up four goals on 13 shots.
As for the Flyers, Ivan Fedotov has never been the goaltender of record against Montreal, but he does have an 8.79 GAA and a .692 SP. Samuel Ersson has a 2-2-0 record against the Habs with a 3.63 GAA and a .840 SP.
Up front, the Canadiens will want to keep a close eye on rookie Matvei Michkov. He might have only played twice against the Tricolore, but he had three points in the March duel and has 10 points in his last five games. Sean Couturier is the most productive Flyer with 23 points in 33 games, followed by Travis Koneckny with 14 points in 19 games.
The Habs have their own red-hot rookie as well. Lane Hutson has eight points in his last five games and is just two points short of Chris Chelios’s franchise record for most points by a rookie defenseman. The blueliner has got two points in as many games against Philadelphia. Brendan Gallagher is the team’s top scorer against the visitors with 25 in 31 games, followed by Nick Suzuki, who has 13 in 14 duels.
The game is set for 7:00 PM, and the Canadiens will try to keep their near-perfect record at the Bell Centre since the 4 Nations Face-off. They have been 7-0-1 since then.
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