Canadiens Lineup

Mike Hoffman – Nick Suzuki – Jake Evans

Jonathan Drouin – Laurent Dauphin – Jesse Ylonen

Artturi Lehkonen – Ryan Poehling – Cole Caufield

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Joel Armia

Ben Chiarot – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Kale Clague

Cayden Primeau – Jake Allen

Mathieu Perreault, Sam Montembeault

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)

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.

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