Canadiens Looking To Build On Fantastic Road Trip

Tonight, the Montreal Canadiens will take on the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre, in what will be the first tilt between the two Canadian sides this season. While the Canadiens are just coming off one of their most successful road trip in recent memory and have a 7-3-0 record in their last 10 games, the Canucks are 3-4-3 and mainly making the headlines because of a reported rift between two star players.

The last time the two teams met, the Canucks topped the Habs 4-1 in Vancouver and the starting goalies were Samuel Montembeault and Casey DeSmith on March 21, 2024. Juraj Slafkovsky had scored the sole Canadiens' goal with an assist from Cole Caufield. Nikita Zadorov (who is now with the Boston Bruins) had scored two goals for the home team while Conor Garland and Nils Aman had the other two.

Vancouver has won the last three confrontation and is 7-2-1 in the last 10 duels. Samuel Montembeault has a 1-3-1 record against the Canucks with a 4.62 goals-against average and a .855 save percentage. There's been no confirmation as to who will be in net, but even with Jakub Dobes' stellar performance on Saturday night, the Habs' number one goaltender should be between the pipes since. Coach Martin St-Louis has elected to cancel this morning's practice and won't speak to the press until 4:30 PM meaning there won't be any lineup confirmation until then.

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At the other end of the ice, Tatcher Demko (5-4-0, 3.42 GAA and .899 SP) is currently battling Covid 19 which means either Kevin Lankinen or Arturs Silovs should get the nod. Neither of the two has played against Montreal in their short career. As for the Canucks, they'll hold an optional morning skate at 11:30 AM at the Bell Centre.

Up front, Brendan Gallagher is the Canadiens most prolific scorer against Vancouver with 14 points in 28 games, followed by Nick Suzuki who has 13 points in 17 games and by Josh Anderson and Joel Armia who each have 11 points in 19 games for the former and 18 for the latter. As for Patrik Laine, he has 10 points in 11 games, but it's not yet known if he'll be able to return to action tonight.

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On the other side, J.T. Miller has 24 career points against Montreal in 35 games, followed by Tyler Myers with 19 points in 53 games and Quinn Hughes who has 17 points in as many games. Hughes may not take part in the game however as he's currently injured, just like Elias Pettersson with 10 points in 15 games.

Evan though the Canadiens had a disastrous start to their season, they currently sit only one point out of a wildcard spot and the second half of the campaign promises to be interesting. Tonight's game kicks off at 7:30 PM and is shown on Amazon Prime.

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