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Farrell Makes NHL Debut | RECAP: MTL @ PHI

Rick Stephens

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

FINAL | Game 75, Away Game 39 | Tuesday March 28, 2023
Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA

CANADIENS

Montreal

2-3

FLYERS

Philadelphia
Sean Farrell, Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Mike Hoffman

Sean Farrell – Jonathan Drouin – Denis Gurianov

Jesse Ylonen – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

Michael Pezzetta – Chris Tierney – Alex Belzile

Defence pairings

Mike Matheson – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron

Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Goaltenders

Cayden Primeau, Sam Montembeault

Scratches

Rem Pitlick, Chris Wideman, Jake Allen

Injuries

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Joel Armia (illness), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Kaiden Guhle (lower-body), Josh Anderson (lower-body), Kirby Dach  

Game Report

Game 75 of this long season was not an easy watch for Habs fans. If you happened to be on social media during the Canadiens visit to the Wells Fargo Center, “dull” and “boring” were common descriptions.

And that was true. It was a low-event, low-energy game with little to spark the interest of Flyers fans in the building. But there was two reasons for Habs fans to stay tuned.

It was the first NHL start of the season for Cayden Primeau. If a perfect game could be designed for Primeau to show his strengths, this was it. The 23-year-old was playing against a weak Flyers team in a building he was very familiar with and with family in attendance.

If fans only read the stats sheet, one could assume that Primeau fared well, giving up just two goals on 26 shots. But watching the young goaltender closely, it was clear that things could have been much worse if the Flyers mustered more than seven high danger scoring chances.

Primeau was scrambly in his play and his positioning in the net suffered. He was fortunate on numerous occasions that the Flyers were inept and should be appreciative of his team around him. Johnathan Kovacevic deserves a dinner for sweeping a puck off the goal line when it was misplayed by the goaltender.

The other reason to watch this game was to see the pro debut of Sean Farrell. The 21-year-old played well given that his only preparation with the team was a brief video session. Farrell showed second effort on the forecheck and was well-positioned in the defensive zone.

It will be enjoyable to watch his skill emerge as he gets more comfortable in the lineup during the Canadiens’ remaining games.

Up Next

The Canadiens return home to face the Florida Panthers on Thursday night. Cayden Primeau was assigned to the Laval Rocket following the game. Though it wasn’t in doubt, the Montreal Canadiens have been officially eliminated from the playoffs as of tonight’s results.

Plus

▲  Brendan Gallagher, Jake Evans, Jesse Ylonen, Justin Barron

Minus

▼  Nick Suzuki, Mike Hoffman, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jonathan Drouin, Denis Gurianov, Mike Matheson

Game Preview

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

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   FLYERS
29 Shots 27
57 Face-off % 43
0-for-0 Power Play 0-for-2
4 Penalty Minutes 0
16 Hits 22
49 Corsi For 48
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (30-39-6) 0 1 1 – – 2
Flyers (29-32-12) 0 1 2 – – 3
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL:  Gallagher (7), Harvey-Pinard (13)
  • PHI: Frost (15), Frost (16), Tippett (22)
  • MTL: Primeau (L) (0-0-1)
  • PHI: Sandstrom (W) (2-10-2)

Stars of the Game

NHL Three Stars
  1. Morgan Frost  PHI
  2. Felix Sandstrom  PHI
  3. Cam York  PHI

Watch

Video Highlights
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What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Marty St. Louis

  • “We didn’t want to give [Sean Farrell] too much (information). A little at a time. He had to go play.”

Sean Farrell

  • “Marty said to go out and play my game and we can fix some of my weaknesses later in the week so that’s what I tried to do.”
  • “I’m going to take it day-by-day and try to get better. It was good to get my feet wet tonight but I can definitely play a lot better.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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