Vancouver Canucks vs. Montreal Canadiens - Thursday October 30 - 7 p.m - Sportsnet 360, TSN1040 Radio
Vancouver Canucks: 6-3-0 fourth in Pacific Division
Montreal Canadiens: 8-2-0 first in Atlantic Division
The Vancouver Canucks will look to stretch their home winning streak to three games when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks have been solid since returning home from last week's road trip, but tonight's game will be a tougher test. Their 3-0 loss to Edmonton on Monday notwithstanding, Montreal is one of the best teams in the league through the early part of 2014-15.
General Manager Marc Bergevin and coach Michel Therrien have done a remarkable job of turning around a team that finished last in the Eastern Conference just three seasons ago, in 2011-12 (and still beat the Canucks handily at Rogers Arena that year). They've moved their young talent into important roles, surrounded them with savvy veterans and smoothed out the rough edges that used to exist in Carey Price's game.
The B.C. native always gets up for games against the Canucks and will have family in the stands again tonight, as usual.
For Canuck fans, this will be our first chance to see Dale Weise since he was traded away last season. Ex-Canuck Mike Weaver has also become a key player on the Habs' roster, as has Manny Malhotra—who made his first return to Vancouver last December as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Malhotra continues to do his thing on the face-off dot. He's tops among players that have taken more than 10 draws this season with a stunning 63.6 percent success rate.
Though Weise had a successful honeymoon phase when he first got to Montreal last spring, he was scratched for a few games this season after a rough start. He has been putting up better defensive numbers since returning to the lineup, but is only playing between eight and 13 minutes a night.
For all their success in the early going, most of Montreal's performance stats are surprisingly average. The Canadiens scored just one more goal than they've allowed, and their leading scorer is still Tomas Plekanec. He started the season on a hot streak, with five points in his first three games, but has added just four more in the seven subsequent contests.
After an eerily quiet night at Rogers Arena for the Hurricanes game on Tuesday, the atmosphere should be much rowdier tonight as the Habs fans roll in. Montreal games are always pretty intense in the press box as well—the team travels with a large entourage of both French and English media.
I'm surprised to see
this story in today's
Vancouver Sun. Good seats are still available for tonight's contest!
The sellout streak really is over.
Benning Speaks
Vancouver general manager Jim Benning joined Bro Jake and Dave Pratt on TEAM1040 this morning. You can have a listen here:
I give Benning credit for speaking unprompted about the team's losses so far, saying that they "sort of beat themselves." Also, points for acknowledging that the fast teams through the neutral zone are the opponents that have caused trouble in the early going.
The Canadiens are another speedy team, so we'll see tonight if Willie Desjardins' adjustments so far are enough to combat the Montreal attack.
Markstrom Gets Attention
It's clear that Jacob Markstrom's shutout streak is something special when he starts getting attention on the NHL network.
Travis Green talked about Markstrom's accomplishments on Wednesday. Here's the interview.
Joacim Ericsson was in net last night for the Comets' 3-2 win over Binghamton, so Markstrom will get his chance to go for the record this weekend. Utica has a Halloween home game against Binghamton on Friday, then hits the road to visit Adirondack on Saturday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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