Montreal Canadiens (13-6-1) at Philadelphia Flyers (13-6-2) – November 22nd,
2010
P.K. Subban and the Montreal Canadiens seek to earn respect tonight
as they visit the Philadelphia Flyers. The two teams met early last week,
and the Canadiens won the game 3-0. Carey Price made 41 saves for the
shutout, but it was Philadelphia captain Mike Richard’s comments stating that
the young Subban needs to "earn respect" that made headlines. Those
comments, paired with last game’s 3rd-period misconducts, cheapshots and alleged
chokings should make for an emotional game tonight. The Flyers last played
on Saturday night, and beat the Washington Capitals 5-4 in a shootout. The
Canadiens are coming off a 2-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, on a night that
featured a tribute to the late Pat Burns. The Canadiens are 6-4-0 over
their last 10 games while the Flyers are 7-2-1 over the same span.
It should serve as a surprise to no one that Carey Price (12-6-1, 2.00 GAA,
.932 SV%) will be in net for the Canadiens tonight. Price has started 19
of the first 20 games, but Alex Auld (1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .968 SV%) should get a
start this week. After sitting out for the better part of a month, Brian
Boucher (2-3-1, 2.98 GAA, .884 SV%) will play for the second straight game while
rookie sensation Sergei Bobrovsky (11-3-1, 2.29 GAA, .925 SV%) will watch from
the bench. With Michael Leighton returning from injury soon, it is thought
that that Philadelphia might be showcasing Boucher for a potential trade.
Tomas Plekanec leads all Canadiens in scoring with 7 goals and 13 assists in
19 games, putting him on pace to top his career-best numbers. Mike
Cammalleri (6-8-14) and Andrei Kostitsyn (7-7-14) round out the scoring leaders
for Montreal, but Brian Gionta (5-6-11) has 8 points in his last 7 games.
The Flyers are very deep in scoring and feature the likes of Mike Richards
(9-14-23), Claude Giroux (11-11-22), Jeff Carter (10-7-17), Ville Leino
(3-13-16) and Danny Briere (10-4-14).
With all that offensive firepower, it isn’t too surprising that
Philadelphia’s powerplay (18.6%) has been more successful than the Canadiens’
(16.0%) this season. However, Montreal’s top-ranked PK (90.5%) is likewise
superior to that of Philadelphia (82.4%). Montreal went 2-for-7 last game
while the Flyers went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
Montreal will still be missing Andrei Markov (knee) while Dustin Boyd and
Mathieu Darche will likely serve as healthy scratches. Philadelphia will
be without Ian Laperriere (concussion), Matt Walker (hip), Daniel Carcillo
(knee) and Michael Leighton (back).
Game-time is 7:00 PM EST and the game is televised on RDS and regional TSN.
Preview by Matt Dilworth