(Philadelphia) Freshly recalled from the American League, Cayden Primeau will face the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. Head coach Martin St-Louis confirmed on Monday that he would hand over the net to the young man.
Even if the Habs are not yet mathematically excluded from the playoffs, the eight games they have left to play are essentially without stakes. In this context, the organization wants to take the pulse of the development of the 23-year-old goalkeeper.
“Every day, all players are evaluated,” St. Louis recalled Monday night.
This is his third recall of the season. The first time, he had not played. The second, he had been sent in relief to Samuel Montembeault for a single period: as he was returning at that time from a long convalescence, we did not want to entrust him with the net for an entire match. This time he will get a proper start.
Primeau is also having a very good time with the Laval Rocket. In his last 9 games, he has a 2.33 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.
This decision to bring him home at this precise moment may seem curious, since the Rocket is in the heart of the fight to reach the AHL playoffs. However, the American has started the last six meetings of his team. So we were planning to send Kevin Poulin into the fray anyway, as the Quebecer recovered from the “upper body” injury that cost him a month of activity. To make up for Primeau’s absence in Laval, the Rocket recalled Philippe Desrosiers from the Trois-Rivières Lions.
To date, Primeau has been given 15 NHL starts since making his professional debut in 2019-20. However, he only had three wins.
Since the Canadiens’ regular players have been granted training leave, we won’t know until the game if the formation that will face the Flyers will be the same as the one that beat the Buffalo Sabers 4-3 in a shootout the day before.
Even if his presence seems very unlikely, it does not seem excluded that Sean Farrell makes his debut in the NHL. The small forward signed his first professional contract last weekend and only joined his new teammates in the city of brotherly love on Tuesday. His immediate entry into the scene would be surprising, since he has not yet participated in any Habs training. However, the team has yet to provide an update on whether or not it will participate in the match.
Carter Hart will be the starting goaltender for the Flyers. Despite his team’s setbacks this season, the goaltender is doing pretty well statistically – 21-21-10 record, 2.90 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.
Quebec forward Nicolas Deslauriers will return to action after missing two games to recover from an “upper body” injury.