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Game #14 | Flyers @ Canadiens | February 16th, 2013 | 7:00pm EST


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Game #14 | Flyers @ Canadiens | February 16th, 2013 | 7:00pm EST

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Carey Price has helped the Montreal Canadiens move past their recent losing streak, but he hasn't had much success against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Canadiens goaltender, however, may be catching the road-weary Flyers at the right time.

Price will try to build on one of his best performances of the season and lead Montreal to a third straight victory Saturday night against the Flyers.

After winning six of eight to open the season, Montreal (8-4-1) dropped three straight before responding with consecutive victories on its two-game road swing in Florida.

Price made 21 saves in a 4-3 shootout win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday and turned away 26 shots in a 1-0 overtime victory against Florida on Thursday.

"He's excellent," coach Michel Therrien said. "We lost a little bit of momentum on two shifts and that's when you need your goalie and Carey was phenomenal."

Excluding a 6-0 loss to Toronto last Saturday, Price has surrendered three goals or fewer in his other 10 starts, yielding two or less seven times. He ranks among the league leaders with a 2.06 goals-against average.

Price, though, has lost five of his last six starts against Philadelphia with a 3.38 GAA.

The Flyers (6-8-1), though, haven't exactly been lighting things up offensively lately, ranking near the bottom of the NHL with 2.46 goals per game.

Philadelphia went 3-0-1 on a recent homestand but has lost two of the first three games on its season-high six-game trip, including Friday's 5-3 defeat to New Jersey. The Flyers lost despite scoring three first-period goals and outshooting the Devils 28-19.

"I mean guys were skating hard today," said captain Claude Giroux, who had two assists. "We got a 3-1 lead, we have to find a way to get it done. We have to learn from this."

Matt Read leads the Flyers with six goals, scoring his third in five games Friday.

Philadelphia could be without top defenseman Kimmo Timonen after he left Friday's contest in the third period with a lower-body injury.

The Flyers have been outscored 31-21 in losing seven of nine on the road, while the Canadiens have dropped two straight at home after a five-game win streak at the Bell Centre.

Montreal has offensive issues of its own, scoring one goal or none in three of its past five games.

Rene Bourque scored 2:10 into overtime Thursday, the only goal the Canadiens could muster on 32 shots.

The team's power play hasn't been much help recently, converting 1 of 14 opportunities over the past three games.

Philadelphia's Ilya Bryzgalov has allowed 10 goals in his last three starts and could give way to Brian Boucher with games on back-to-back nights. Boucher made his only appearance this season in relief at Toronto on Monday, yielding one goal on 10 shots.

The Flyers have won three straight and six of seven against the Canadiens.

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This is a winnable game, in fact it's a game we should win if we want to be a playoff team. I've come to terms with the fact that I have no idea what to expect from this team on any given night though so nothing will surprise me.

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I also think this should be a game we win. Doesn't mean we will, but we should. Philly has struggled, has zero goaltending or confidence in their goaltending, and is potentially missing 3 of their top 4 D men (if you count Pronger as still being a Flyer). We don't have the skill to match their top end forwards, but we have good scoring depth, a better top-end D corps, and an all-star caliber goalie, and we're playing at home against a team we hate. To boot, Philly played last night and suffered a deflating third-period come-from-behind loss. You'd like to think we can get ourselves motivated for this one.

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Cool GDT, WCH,,,Hope your 1st gives us the 2 PTs. :D

Would certainly be nice if Timonen isn't able to go tonight. Every little bit helps. Still undecided as to whether I'd rather see Bryzgalov or Boucher play...

Bryz played last night, so, I would expect Boucher tonight. Doesn't really matter. They have given up an avg. of 3.00 GPG.

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CP out tonight with flu, according to Bleacher Report. Robert Mayer called up from AHL.

:(

Well this certainly sucks, especially to our best player. However I think Budaj will surprise us with his best game this season tonight. He will need major help from his D though & great rebound control.

Is this possible or am I grasping at straws?

Get well soon CP!

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I would really like to see Budaj step it up, he knows that he has been weak. This guy is a character guy, I think that if he makes a few good saves early on, the team will play with more confidence. When the Canadiens play with confidence, they are really hard to beat! I have watched a lot of hockey this year so far, thank you NHL Game Center, and if I could compare for a second. The Habs would match up well against just about anyone right now when they are playing the brand of hockey that we saw vs Ottawa, Florida, Buffalo and even the Boston game that we lost (Rask was really good). I predict a 4-2 win for the Tricolore!

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Well this certainly sucks, especially to our best player. However I think Budaj will surprise us with his best game this season tonight. He will need major help from his D though & great rebound control.

Is this possible or am I grasping at straws?

Get well soon CP!

+10

With 5 games in the next 8 days, and 3 games the next 4, the team will have to buckle down, and work, work, work.

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Via Dave Stubbs on Twitter:

"@Dave_Stubbs: Budaj career vs #Flyers: 0-2-0, 4.50 avg, .842 pct; Boucher career vs #Habs: 2-6-0, 0 SO, 2.72, .885; Bryzgalov: 1-3-1, 0 SO, 3.20, .880"

Those are some less than stellar stats all around.

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Nice thread Westcoasthabs ;)....LEST GO HABS!

Looking forward to a good competitive game.

THIS

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almost got tix for tonight's game, got them for monday instead ... and now loggin in i see that carey will not play tonight so my lack of tix luck is not too bad. B)

budaj makes me nervous but better have him against the flyers where we have a chance to score a few as well. methinks it's going to be a tight highish score 4-3, 5-4 something like that.

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