Team: 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 11, 2020

Published: Aug. 11, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Reading all the articles about the Flyers v Habs match-up, Habs are going to be up against whole different beast than what they faced vs the Penguins. PIT were all speed and transition, PHI are all dump and chase + intense forechecking.

Just looking at the Habs lineup iced vs PIT. Habs 3rd defensive pairing of Mete and Ouellet are a HUGE concern for me against the Flyers. Mete is clearly not made for grinding in the corners and getting physical. Get him out of there ASAP. Ouellet, although he played alright vs the Pens, he isn't really known for his physicality. I would swap both out for Juulsen and Fleury. One would have to play on his off-side, but that was already happening with Mete and Ouellet. Both Fleury and Juulsen play strong physical games that matches up just right for playing against a dump and chase team. and apart from Mete, Habs aren't sacrificing much in terms of their transition game. For the amount of time the 3rd pairing will play this series (which not much at all), I would much rather for the 3rd pairing to just focus on getting the puck out of their zone. Let Petry, Weber, Chiarot, and Kulak push the offense.

Up front MTL should leave their top 3 lines as they left them vs PIT. For the 4th line, bring in Poehling to give at least give 1 skilled player to play with Domi lol he also adds size which is nice. I liked what I saw from Belzile, and he actually showed strong chemistry with Poehling in Laval before he got hurt. Launch Weise and Weal out of the bubble.....
Not that they will have much choice the first 2 games, but when they get last change in games 3-4 (Maybe game 6), matchup Danault's shut down line vs Couturier's to try and cancel them out. Put KK's line against Hayes, and slot Suzuki's top line to challenge PHI's 3rd line.