Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers-Canadiens Preview: Lineups, Notes & How to Watch

Published

1 year ago

February 24, 2023

Sam Carchidi

Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and the Philadelphia Flyers will host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night. Photo: AP.

The Philadelphia Flyers have lots of injuries. The Montreal Canadiens have even more.

The teams will meet Friday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Despite a shorthanded lineup, the Canadiens are coming off a 5-2 win Tuesday in New Jersey. The Habs won despite getting outshot, 40-18. The Devils had an 81-36 domination in shot attempts.

Montreal won because goalie Sam Montembeault stopped 38 of 40 shots.

The Canadiens (24-29-4) have eight players on the long-term injured list: Brendan Gallagher, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, Carey Price, Sean Monahan, Paul Byron, Jake Evans, and Arber Xhekaj. In addition, Kirby Dach, Chris Wideman, and Joel Edmundson are injured.

Oh, Canada!

The Philadelphia Flyers (23-26-10) are coming off a 1-3 road trip. They will be without high-scoring right winger Travis Konecny on Friday as he misses his second straight game because of an upper-body injury.

Konecny is still being evaluated.

Flyers’ expected lineup

Laughton-Cates-Allison

JVR-Frost-Tippett

Lycksell-Hayes-Farabee

Deslauriers-Brown-Rotating RW

Defense

Provorov-Sanheim

York-Ristolainen

Seeler-DeAngelo

Justin Braun

Goalie

Hart (16-17-9, 2.88 GAA, .909 SP)

Canadiens’ expected lineup

Rotating RW-Suzuki-Anderson

Pitlick-Dvorak-Dadonov

Hoffman-Drouin-Ylonen

Pezzetta-Tierney-Belzile

Defense

Matheson-Barron

Schueneman-Savard

Harris-Kovacevic

Guhle

Goalie

Allen (12-18-2, 3,47, .894)

Breakaways

Both teams plan to go with seven defensemen and 11 forwards. … The Flyers have an all-time 80-83-40 record against the Canadiens. … James van Riemsdyk has 18 goals in 42 career games vs. the Habs. … Mike Hoffman has 10 goals in 22 career games against Philly. … Carter Hart is 2-2-3 with with a 2.99 GAA and .910 save percentage against Montreal. … The Flyers dropped a 5-4 shootout decision to the Canadiens on Nov. 19. … Jonathan Drouin has 17 assists i 34 games but no goals. … The Flyers are 29th in the NHL in faceoffs (45.7%). Yes, they miss Sean Couturier. … Forward Tanner Laczynski (remember him?), sidelined since December with an ankle injury, skated at practice Friday. … Allen has had a tough year but has won two of his last three starts.