Game of the Week: Montreal vs. Philadelphia

Opening faceoff: No. 8 seed Montreal vs. No. 1 Philadelphia, Game 1, best-of-7 series, First Round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Vote is In: Our social followers were almost evenly split on choosing Montreal-Philly, Arizona-Colorado or Vancouver-St. Louis. Emphasis on 'almost.' The Canadiens-Flyers matchup earned one vote more than the other two games. The guess here is there are lots of Everett Silvertips fans who wanted to see their former star goalie Carter Hart face his childhood idol, Carey Price, in the opposing net.

MTL Outlook: Price shut down a potent Pittsburgh offense with a .947 save percentage during the upset of the Penguins. He will have to do more of the same against the Flyers. Funny thing, both the Montreal and Philly were skunked during power play, or man-advantage, situations in their previous games at hub city Toronto. The Canadiens struggle with more over with the power play (the Flyers converted on a respectable 21 percent during the regular season), mostly because the puck predictably goes to Shea Weber for his wicked and 100-mph-plus slapshot.

MTL Players (and Coach) to Watch: Canadiens coach Claude Julien won a Cup with Boston in 2010 and his philosophy skews to stingy defense and goaltending. Look for him to double-shift the "big three" defensemen, Weber, Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot to stay stingy. Petry scored two huge goals against Pittsburgh, including a Game 1 overtime winner.
PHI Outlook: The Flyers sharpened their postseason form by sweeping Boston, Tampa Bay and Washington in the round robin seeding tournament. Stellar defense and goaltending led the way. Hart posted a 2-0 record with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .966 save percentage during the round robin with veteran Brian Elliott getting the other start, also giving up just one goal in the win. The Flyers do have scoring punch, coming into the playoffs as the seventh in team goals during the regular season. Montreal will have their gloved hands full with offensive producers Travis Konecny, Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek.
PHI Players to Watch:Giroux seems like an ageless wonder as a scorer and captain, but at 32 he is still a force. Sean Couturier is what scouts like to call a 200-foot player who can score and defend with elite forwards in the league. Ivan Provorov is the underrated workhorse defenseman for the Flyers who will impress fans during this series.