Game 82: Montreal Canadiens @ Philadelphia Flyers
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Flyers region: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The Montreal Canadiens have chosen to rest some veterans for tonight’s game. Mike Matheson will enter the playoffs on at least five days’ rest as he will watch from the press box. Phillip Danault will join him, and Josh Anderson, who is due for a busy series shadowing Nikita Kucherov, is also getting a chance to be as fresh as possible for Game 1. In their places come Adam Engström, Joe Veleno, and Brendan Gallagher.
The Philadelphia Flyers, who have nothing left to play for in the regular season, have made more significant changes from the lineup that clinched a playoff berth last night, scratching all of Sean Couturier, Jamie Drysdale, Travis Konecny, Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim, Owen Tippett, Dan Vladar, Cam York, and Trevor Zegras. That list includes their top three goal-scorers, every one of their top-four defencemen, and their starting netminder.
The Flyers have recalled a significant portion of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ roster from the AHL. While on paper that looks like Montreal is in for an easy night, you know that all of those players will want to show they can be options if needed for the Flyers during a playoff run. They may not play with the defensive structure that is largely responsible for Philadelphia making the post-season, but the effort will be there for a new group of players who have limited, or in a couple of cases no experience in the NHL.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
#13 Cole Caufield
#14 Nick Suzuki
#20 Juraj Slafkovský
#85 Alexandre Texier
#15 Alex Newhook
#93 Ivan Demidov
#76 Zachary Bolduc
#91 Oliver Kapanen
#77 Kirby Dach
#90 Joe Veleno
#71 Jake Evans
#11 Brendan Gallagher
Left Defence
Right Defence
#48 Lane Hutson
#64 David Reinbacher
#42 Adam Engström
#21 Kaiden Guhle
#47 Jayden Struble
#72 Arber Xhekaj
Starter
Backup
#75 Jakub Dobeš
#32 Jacob Fowler
Injured: Alexandre Carrier, Noah Dobson
Scratched: Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, Patrik Laine, Mike Matheson, Samuel Montembeault
Philadelphia Flyers projected lineup
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
Tyson Foerster
Noah Cates
Matvei Michkov
Alex Bump
Denver Barkey
Porter Martone
Garrett Wilson
Luke Glendening
Garnet Hathaway
Carl Grundstrom
Jacob Gaucher
Anthony Richard
Left Defence
Right Defence
Nick Seeler
David Jiricek
Noah Juulsen
Emil Andrae
Hunter McDonald
Oliver Bonk
Starter
Backup
Samuel Ersson
Alexei Kolosov