FINAL | Round 1, Game 1 | Wednesday August 12, 2020

Flyers lead series 1-0

Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Phillip Danault – Artturi Lehkonen

Dale Weise – Max Domi – Alex Belzile

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Xavier Ouellet – Victor Mete

Carey Price – Charlie Lindgren

Ryan Poehling, Charles Hudon, Christian Folin, Noah Juulsen, Victor Olofsson, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven, Jordan Weal

Ineligible

Alexander Romanov

Jake Evans

Game Report

The Canadiens dropped game one of their round one playoff game. The only surprise there should be that the Habs are indeed in the playoffs after a 24th place finish this past season. 

With the Flyers dispatching a strong group of premier tier challengers in the round robin portion of the play-in, one wondered how the Canadiens would fare against the top seed in the Eastern conference?

As is becoming standard in this post-season, Carey Price kept his team close with another outstanding performance. Price made a miraculous stick save on a blast from Scott Laughton from point blank range that also may have saved the life of one Nick Suzuki. Nick said that Price’s effort saved his head.

What was more impressive than Carey’s save was that he never gave up on the play catching just enough puck with his blade.

Despite being thoroughly outplayed in the first period — Shea Weber said his team was rusty out of the gates — the Canadiens came back strong in the second period. No team during the round robin (Lightning, Capitals, Bruins) dominated the Flyers the way the Habs did outshooting Philadelphia 17-7.

The Canadiens forced the Flyers, especially their defencemen, to make bad decisions. This should be a learning moment for the coaching staff for the rest of the series as something that Montreal can exploit.

But Philadelphia regrouped in the second intermission locking down their zone in the third period. The Habs struggled to get opportunities. But with just 26 seconds remaining, Suzuki rang a shot off the cross-bar that would have tied the game. 

It’s early in this series but time is running out for offensive contributions from Montreal’s top scorers. Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Drouin and Max Domi have combined for just one goal in the past five games. Each of them must be much better.

The Habs and Flyers will play game two of the series on Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm.  

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Artturi Lehkonen, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Paul Byron

▼  Tomas Tatar, Alex Belzile, Dale Weise, Xavier Ouellet, Max Domi