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A Quiet Win | RECAP: PHI @ MTL

Montreal Canadiens vs Philadelphia Flyers, Game Recap: Habs, Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Interviews, NHL, Three-Stars

FINAL/SO | Game 31, Home Game 16 | Thursday December 16, 2021
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

3-2

FLYERS

Philadelphia

Artturi Lehkonen (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Jake Evans

Jonathan Drouin – Laurent Dauphin – Jesse Ylonen

Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Joel Armia

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Kale Clague

Goaltenders

Cayden Primeau – Jake Allen

Scratches

Mathieu Perreault, Sam Montembeault

Injuries

Chris Wideman (personal), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Tyler Toffoli (upper-body), Josh Anderson (upper-body), Joel Edmundson (back), Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

COVID-19 protocol

Brendan Gallagher, Sami Niku

Game Report

The Montreal Canadiens ended their seven game losing streak picking up their seventh win of the season with a shootout victory over the Flyers. Unfortunately, this rare victory was not witnessed by any of their supporters in the building.

Just about two hours prior to game time the Canadiens announced that fans would not be allowed in the Bell Centre for this contest. The team was complying with a request from Quebec health officials who have been monitoring an alarming spike in COVID cases.

Oddly the lack of fans seemed to calm the Habs who played one of their strongest first periods in many games. And the quiet building had the opposite effect on the Flyers who were listless to start. The Canadiens outshot the Flyers in the first period 19-8; high danger scoring chances were 10-0 for the Habs.

Philadelphia failing to generate a single high-danger scoring chance in the first period was good news for Cayden Primeau, who was gifted a rather uneventful start to the game. Primeau was a surprise starter for Montreal, another oddity of a truly unusual game.

Primeau had dreadful numbers from his two earlier starts of the season with an 0-2-0 record, a 4.82 goals against average and an .877 save percentage.

Was the one-game recall a reward for being the workhorse in Laval for the past few weeks? Was Primeau being showcased by the de facto general manager? Or did the matchup offer a storyline too tempting to skip with Primeau facing the Flyers, a team his father captained and who practice a stone’s throw from Cayden’s birthplace?

Whatever the reason for the impromptu start, the Canadiens did everything to make this as easy a night as possible for the 22-year-old goaltender. In regulation the Canadiens dominated high-danger scoring chances 20-4.

Restrictions coming

The win was a bright spot in a difficult season for Montreal. Post-game the discussion was about what will happen with the team and league going forward. The Boston Bruins are the next visitor, but given their COVID situation, will the game go ahead?

And it appears that once the Canadiens return from a long road trip to end December, all home games will be restricted to a 50 per cent limit on fan capacity in the Bell Centre.

Up Next

The Canadiens will enjoy a day off on Friday with their next game scheduled for Saturday against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre. The team will make an announcement on Friday regarding the status of the game.

Plus

▲  Ben Chiarot, Artturi Lehkonen, Ryan Poehling, Kale Clague, Jesse Ylonen, Brett Kulak, Laurent Dauphin

Minus

▼  Jeff Petry, Mike Hoffman, Nick Suzuki, Michael Pezzetta, Cedric Paquette

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Primeau to Start | PREVIEW: PHI @ MTL

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   FLYERS
30 Shots 39
37 Face-off % 60
0-for-2 Power Play 0-for-2
4 Penalty Minutes 4
22 Hits 13
53 Corsi For 49
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (7-21-3) 1 0 1 0 1 3
Flyers (11-12-5) 0 2 0 0 0 2
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Lehkonen (4), Dauphin (1) Game deciding goal: Drouin
  • PHI: Willman (2), Cates (1)
  • MTL: Primeau (W) (1-2-0)
  • PHI: Hart (OTL) (7-8-4)

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Jonathan Drouin  MTL
  2. Laurent Dauphin  MTL
  3. Ben Chiarot  MTL

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “When you have opportunities, you take it and at one point they might be forcing us to make room for those guys if they keep going like that. We had 12 forwards tonight but, at one point, we’ll have 13, 14, 15. Who’s going to deserve to be in? I think that’s going to be much better for us.”
  • “I think I’ll leave that to the organization (regarding number Boston Bruins players diagnosed with COVID-19 cases.) If we have any concerns about that in the next few hours, I imagine that Geoff (Molson) or Jeff (Gorton) will speak to the league. I won’t start calling them every time. You understand. I find that we have enough things to take care of on our side than to manage the COVID of the other teams.

Cole Caufield

  • “I think I’m playing well, getting looks. It’s obviously frustrating for a goal-scorer like me, but I have to keep shooting at the net. I’m not picking the exact spot, but sooner or later they’re going to go in.”

Jonathan Drouin

  • “It’s a difficult question to answer. But I’m not really comfortable playing against a team (Boston Bruins) that has so many cases of COVID. There are currently seven cases, but there could be three more tomorrow and three more the following day. I don’t feel comfortable. This is not what we were told with the vaccines for this year. I know things are changing. Like I said, it’s not ideal.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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