All Habs GameDay: Thursday December 15, 2011
On this day in hockey history… 1917 – The first exhibition game in NHL history was played (four days before the league officially began) when the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Wanderers played in a benefit game for victims of the Halifax Fire (which had occurred 10 days earlier).
GAMEDAY: Habs hockey tonight!
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (19-7-3) vs. 
MONTREAL CANADIENS (13-11-7)
Last 10: New York 8-2-0; Montreal 4-2-4
Bell Centre, 7:30 p.m. EST
TV: RDS, TSN, NHLN-US, CSN-PH
Projected line combinations (updated following morning skate)
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Forwards
Mike Cammalleri – Tomas Plekanec – Andrei Kostitsyn
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Erik Cole
Mathieu Darche – Lars Eller – Louis Leblanc
Mike Blunden – Petteri Nokelainen – Yannick Weber
Defenseman
Josh Gorges – P.K. Subban
Hal Gill – Chris Campoli
Alexei Emelin – Tomas Kaberle
Goaltenders
Carey Price (will start) – Peter Budaj
Scratches
Raphael Diaz
Injuries
Scott Gomez – Ryan White – Andrei Markov – Brian Gionta – Travis Moen
Power-play
Cammalleri – Plekanec – Kostitsyn- Kaberle – Subban
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Cole – Weber – Campoli
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
Forwards
Scott Hartnell – Sean Couturier – Jaromir Jagr
Matt Read – Danny Briere – Wayne Simmonds
James van Riemsdyk – Max Talbot – Jakub Voracek
Zac Rinaldo – Harry Zolnierczyk – Jody Shelley
Defensemen
Kimmo Timonen – Braydon Coburn
Kevin Marshall – Andrej Mezaros
Marc-Andre Bourdon – Matt Carle
Goaltenders
Ilya Bryzgalov – Sergei Bobrovsky (will start)
Scratches
Injuries
Andreas Lilja – Joni Pitkanen – Erik Gustafsson – Brayden Schenn – Blair Betts – Chris Pronger – Claude Giroux
GAMEDAY: All Habs Headlines
► Dig the hole deeper: Gazette / HockeyInsideOut columnist Pat Hickey offended many with his piece on Theoren Fleury. Survivors of sexual abuse were deeply hurt by his words. His follow-up column and radio appearances only served to amplify the criticism. Our friends at Habs Eyes on the Prize have dissected the original article and his “clarification” piece.
“The point is simple here, Pat Hickey doesn’t get, and he doesn’t have any interest in understanding it. Perhaps he thinks he was attacking the culture of hero worship in modern society, as he alluded to on TSN 990, but he miserably failed in context, truth and target. I’d like to go through both of Hickey’s articles on the subject, as well as use some of his interview on TSN 990 to show not only how wrong he is, but how blatantly dishonest.” — Andrew Berkshire
Read more: Hickey doesn’t get it
► Waiting for the knock at the door: Vancouver Giants forward Brendan Gallagher will be one of three prospects of the Montreal Canadiens to represent Canada at the World Junior Championships starting on Boxing Day. It’s the first WJC tournament for Gallagher who heard the news from Giants head coach Don Hay, who is serving in the same role for Team Canada.
“It was great to get that knock on the door knowing you’ve made the team. It was pretty special. When you’re growing up in Canada as a little kid, you kind of dream of this moment. It was a really cool morning for all of us and now we’re all looking forward to going into the tournament and representing our country. ” – Brendan Gallagher
Read more: Team Canada roster spot ‘pretty special’ for Giants’ Brendan Gallagher