Eastern Semis Game 4: Canadiens at Flyers (1-2)

Carey Price v. Martin Biron

The Flyers just managed to hang on Monday night to defeat Montreal 3-2. The Flyers scored the first three, but a curious five minute major issued to Derian Hatcher allowed the Canadiens to score two power play goals to cut the deficit to one. The Flyers were outplayed for much of the game, and they're pretty fortunate to be ahead in the series.

Martin Biron stole a game for the Flyers. They were outshot by 20, and he made some key saves to preserve the lead. He's beating my expectations in the postseason.

The Flyers need to get more pucks on net in tonight's game. It's great that they were able to score three goals on only 14 shots, but that's not going to cut it more often than not. Carey Price is losing his confident, and if they keep hitting him with shots over and over again, he's going to blow up.

Except for the two PP goals on the same penalty in the last game, the penalty killing has been very good. They killed off a full 5 on 3 (also pretty curious) and several other Montreal power plays. The Canadiens' PP has been off the mark in the playoffs, but it's a unit that still has to be respected. It wasn't an accident that they were #1 in the league; they fire a lot of shots and have a lot of skilled players.

Bill Meltzer just got his preview up.

Ed Moran reports that Mike Knuble will be back tonight. Steve Downie will probably return to the press box.

Knuble Tears Hamstring... Partially

Here's a report from Chuck Gormley, but you can find the news in dozens of places.

He injured himself on a penalty kill when he went down to the ice to block a shot from Mike Green. Green passed the puck, and Knuble tried to get back up, but his skate got caught in their ice surface and he got hurt.

This is a tough loss for the Flyers. He's going to miss the rest of the series for sure, and there's a good chance he misses some games in the second round, if the Flyers wrap things up with Washington. He's very good on the PP, and his goal in Game 4 was huge.

Who do the Flyers add to the lineup? A lot of fans want to see Steve Downie because he can add what we're losing with the Knuble injury. He's better offensively than Riley Cote, but if Cote has played over Downie all year, why would Stevens change that now? Either Kapanen or Thoresen will move up to the Carter line now. That's too bad because even as well as Kapanen's been playing, it's going to disrupt what that very productive line had going.