The Game: 7:00 PM, NBCSP, ESPN+, 93.3 WMMR
After a quick stop at home, the Flyers are on the road again, and they’re kicking off a two game trip (so spread out that it’s hard to call it that) up in Montreal this evening. It’s set to be an interesting rematch of a huge game which unfolded just over a week ago — the first Flyers game of the post-Tortorella era was against the Canadiens in Philly, and it saw the Flyers take off running, collect a huge 6-4 win, and not stop winning in the two games since.
On the flip side, it’s been a weird week and change for the Habs — after getting whacked by the Flyers in Philly, they then got whacked by the Hurricanes down in Raleigh, but then went on to beat the Panthers back to back in their home and home series, and then took down the Bruins 4-1 on Thursday. They’ve certainly rebounded after that tough start to this stretch, and are heading into this one with some real momentum. The Flyers ran right through them in their last meeting, but the Canadiens won’t be looking to let that happen again, so that will certainly make for an interesting rematch.
Storylines To Watch
Dorwart’s debut
We’re at the point in the season when there isn’t too much going on in the way of new and exciting developments unfolding, but the Flyers will be seeing an exception to that made as newly signed college free agent Karsen Dorwart is set to make his NHL debut tonight in Montreal. He’ll certainly be looking to make an impression in his first taste of NHL action, but we’re also making sure to keep our expectations manageable for him — this is a big jump he’s making, after all, and what’s more, he’ll be easing into things with more limited minutes on the team’s fourth line. Still, this is an exciting moment, and a nice chance for fans to get a look at another new prospect (something which will be limited down this stretch, with the Flyers out of recalls from the Phantoms).
A change up
Dorwart made a nice point of saying after yesterday’s practice that he was excited to play between Nic Deslauruers and Garnet Hathaway in his debut, and that he felt that this would leave him protected in a way, playing with such tough customers. Whether this would play out as planned was called briefly into question this morning, when Deslauriers was notably absent from the morning skate, but worry not, Flyers interim head coach Brad Shaw confirmed that he will be good to go for the game.
So Dorwart will keep his insulation, and with Deslauriers coming in while Olle Lycksell comes out, that line is set to be quite the physical, tone setting presence, and certainly an interesting insight into how the team wants to match up against the bottom of Montreal’s lineup.
Momentum check
Ahead of Monday’s game against the Predators, we talked about the new coach boost and the little run that the Flyers had found themselves on, as well as the looming fear that surely the rug was yet to be pulled out from under them, right? This overall feeling hasn’t changed, but with their win on Monday, the Flyers have been able to really nicely keep their momentum rolling. Now, they’ll have a much more difficult task ahead of them tonight, looking to get the better of what’s sure to be a highly motivated Habs team, but it will be a good test of the trueness of their momentum. Maybe regression is coming, but maybe they can stave it off a little longer.
The Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Jakub Pelletier — Ryan Poehling — Owen Tippett
Nic Deslauriers — Karsen Dorwart — Garnet Hathaway
Nick Seeler — Travis Sanheim
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula — Emil Andrae
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Montreal Canadiens
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Emil Heineman — Alex Newhook — Patrik Laine
Josh Anderson — Christian Dvorak — Brendan Gallagher
Michael Pezzetta — Jake Evans — Joel Armia
Mike Matheson — Alexandre Carrier
Caiden Guhle — Lane Hutson
Jaden Struble — David Savard
Jakub Dobes
(Sam Montembault)