When the Montreal Canadiens traded popular forward to the Vancouver Canucks for Zack Kassian, many fans from both teams circled October 27th on the calendar as an important game to watch so as to get an early gauge of which team won the trade. At the time of the deal, most Canadiens fans were sad to lose Prust’s leadership and character but were pleased to get a seemingly younger, cheaper though riskier version of the veteran and a draft pick as well. Canucks fans that I spoke to felt that Kassian never got a real chance in Vancouver and that Montreal would be a fresh start where he could blossom if given the opportunity. Unfortunately by now, the story of Kassian’s auto accident and entry into stage 2 of the NHLPA’s Substance Abuse & Behavioural Program is well known. As of now, it does not look like Kassian will don a Canadiens jersey this season, if ever again.
While Brandon Prust is off to a good start in Vancouver with 3 assists in 8 games and averaging 12:32 minutes of ice time, it could be argued that the Canadiens are still an improved team without him in the lineup. Had Prust not been traded, would the Canadiens have given Tomas Fleischmann a professional try-out during training camp? Fleischmann compliments David Desharnais much more than Prust would have on the left side. Fleischmann has 2 goals and 3 assists in 9 games while averaging 14:46 minutes and is contributing on the penalty kill as well. His two goals have been game winners as well. He has brought stability, consistency and is a welcome addition to the lineup. Would Prust be an upgrade over Brian Flynn or Devante Smith-Pelly? At the moment I still say no. Flynn has been playing his role perfectly, chipping in with a goal and an assist, defending against other teams top lines and especially effective on his strong side in the faceoff circle where he has a winning percentage of 61.9%. Smith-Pelly is arguably the Canadiens most improved player this season. His weight loss has resulted in a notable increase in speed, he is aggressive on the forecheck and has created numerous opportunities for his linemates. While he is the only Canadiens forward without a goal this season, it is only a matter of time before he breaks through as long as continues with his outstanding effort thus far. Prust’s fighting has so far not been missed and so I would argue that in fact the Canadiens are indeed a better team without him. Undefeated at 9-0, it is hard to say otherwise…
It will be a homecoming of sorts for BC native Carey Price who has a 6-1-2 record against the Canucks and a 2.19 GAA. Everyone should expect another strong performance from the man in the Habs crease. Brendan Gallagher and his family moved to Vancouver during his formative years and played junior hockey for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. He will be excited to perform in front of friends and family as well. As for the game tonight, Michel Therrien confirmed that there will not be any lineup changes despite Paul Byron splitting reps with Alex Semin on the second line:
Byron alterne avec Semin à la droite d'Eller et de Galchenyuk. Pour le reste, pas de changement. #ch #habs
— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) October 26, 2015The splits were most likely a warning shot to Semin from Therrien. He is giving the forward time to work through things but his patience will only last so long. If Semin has not improved by the time Montreal plays Calgary Friday night and every other forward keeps up their own play, I would imagine that Byron will get into his 1st game against as a Canadiens against his former team…
As for the Canucks, they should present a strong challenge to the Canadiens. They are 3-2-3 to start the season but have only allowed 17 goals thus far. The Canucks are hungry for their first home win of the year and would love to be the one’s to break the Canadiens undefeated streak. Their lineup should look like:
Trios des #Canucks:
D. Sedin-H. Sedin-Vrbata
Burrows-Sutter-Virtanen
Baertschi-Horvat-Hansen
Prust-McCann-Dorsett
#CH #Habs
— Jonathan Bernier (@JBernierJDM) October 26, 20155 Questions heading into tonight’s game:
1) The Canadiens Powerplay has climbed up to 8th in the NHL at a very respectable 22.9% success rate with their recent splurge of PP goals. Will their good fortunes continue or will old habits creep back in?
2) Coming off of their worst game of the year in which the Canadiens were outshot and outplayed, will they find their form from previous games and limit their opponents to less than 30 shots on Carey Price?
3) Which Alex Semin will show up tonight? Will he have a positive or negative impact on the game?
4) Will Devante Smith-Pelly get his first goal of the season on this Western Canada road trip?
5) Will Brandon Prust try to engage any of his former teammates in a fight?
Get ready to stay up late tonight, the puck drops at 10pm!
Enjoy the game & follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler