Flyers at Canadiens preview
Philadelphia looking for fourth straight win; Montreal is 0-4-2 in past six games
by Sean Farrell / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
FLYERS (14-7-5) at CANADIENS (11-9-5)
3 p.m. ET; SN, RDS, NBCSP, NHL.TV
The Game
The Philadelphia Flyers will try for their fourth straight win in their second of back-to-back games when they face the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.
The Flyers won 6-1 against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday in Philadelphia and are 4-0-1 in their past five games.
Montreal begins a back-to-back Saturday with a six-game winless streak (0-4-2), including three straight regulation losses while being outscored 20-10.
The Canadiens have allowed six goals or more in each of three consecutive games for the first time since they allowed 24 goals in three straight losses from Oct. 13-19, 1985.
The only other time that occurred in Canadiens history was Feb. 18-28, 1920, when they allowed 28 goals while losing three of four.
Players to watch
Flyers forward Jakub Voracek had three assists Friday, and has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past four games after being held without a point in his previous four.
Canadiens goalie Carey Price has allowed five goals or more in four of his past five games.
They said it
"I think what we did today was awesome, you know, going after the big win in the first leg of the back-to-back. And hopefully we'll go to Montreal and get another two points." -- Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere after the 6-1 win against Detroit on Friday
"We're really not focused on a quick fix or the slump or whatever you want to call it. We have to win our next hockey game and that's all we're really focused on right now. It's all you can do, put your energy into that and do everything you possibly can. We're going to stick together here, we're going to find a way to do it. We all believe in each other." -- Canadiens forward Max Domi
Flyers projected lineup
Claude Giroux -- Morgan Frost -- Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom -- Sean Couturier -- Jakub Voracek
Scott Laughton -- Kevin Hayes -- Joel Farabee
James van Riemsdyk -- Michael Raffl -- Tyler Pitlick
Ivan Provorov -- Matt Niskanen
Travis Sanheim -- Justin Braun
Robert Hagg -- Shayne Gostisbehere
Brian Elliott
Carter Hart
Scratched: Chris Stewart, Philippe Myers
Injured: Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder)
Canadiens projected lineup
Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen -- Max Domi -- Nick Suzuki
Nick Cousins -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Joel Armia
Charles Hudon -- Nate Thompson -- Jordan Weal
Ben Chiarot -- Shea Weber
Victor Mete -- Jeff Petry
Gustav Olofsson -- Cale Fleury
Keith Kinkaid
Carey Price
Scratched: Christian Folin, Brett Kulak, Mike Reilly
Injured: Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Paul Byron (knee)
Status report
Gostisbehere returned to the lineup and scored a power-play goal Friday after he was a healthy scratch for the previous three games. … Niskanen said he had 15 stitches after taking a puck to the face Friday. ... The Canadiens held a team meeting and workouts but did not practice Friday. … Drouin confirmed that his wrist surgery on Nov. 18 was to repair a torn tendon from a fall to the ice three days earlier in the third period of a 5-2 win at the Washington Capitals. He will be out until mid-January. ... Olofsson was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Friday; he hasn't played in the NHL since 2017-18. Byron was placed on injured reserve.
Stat pack
Couturier has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past four games. … Lehkonen (three goals, one assist) and Domi (two goals, two assists) each have four points in their past three games. … Price needs one shutout to tie Ken Dryden (46) for third place on Montreal's all-time list and is two wins from tying Nikolai Khabibulin and Gump Worsley (333) for 24th place on the NHL all-time list.