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Pregame: Canadiens vs Canucks

December 5, 2022, 10:00 PM ET [211 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey

The Habs have already been without Mike Hoffman and Jonathan Drouin for some time, Brendan Gallagher dropped out a couple of games ago and today, David Savard was absent from practice. The team has confirmed that Gallagher is dealing with a lower body injury and will be out of commission for at least two weeks. As for David Savard, it’s an upper body injury that will be reevaluated on a daily basis.

Line-up wise, this means that things remain unchanged up front with Slafkovsky still on the 2nd line alongside Monahan and Anderson and Pitlick taking his former spot on the 4th line with Evans and Pezzetta. Meanwhile, Joel Armia is still playing with Dadonov and Dvorak. As for the first line, nothing changes and why would it, considering how well those 3 have been working together.

At the back, Savard’s absence means a bit of shuffling as Edmundson will be playing with Guhle, Matheson with Kovacevic and Xhekaj with Harris. Chris Wideman remains the odd man out. In net, Samuel Montembeault will get the start.

The Canucks are having a tough time this season, they’ve only got 23 points and they are in 6th place in the Pacific division. They’ve just lost goaltender Tatcher Demko to injury for 6-weeks and it’s likely that Spencer Martin will be in net for Vancouver, the 27-year-old was selected in the 3rd round by Colorado at the 2013 Entry Draft and he’s spent quite a bit of time in the minors. Before leaving the Avs organization as a free agent last summer, in total, he’s played 20 games in the NHL, including a 3-2 overtime win against the Coyotes on Saturday.

Demko’s injury isn’t the only story in Vancouver though, Brock Boeser has reportedly been given permission to speak to other teams even if, according to the Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance, Boeser has not requested a trade. Still, he was almost a healthy scratch on Saturday, and it seems that both team and player agree that it might be an idea to see if he could be a better fit elsewhere. It’s a shame because Boeser is a good player and he was thought to be part of the Canucks’ future but with 15 points in 19 games and a -13 record, things aren’t going very well for the 25-year-old.

We’ve also got news out of Seattle that Shane Wright will be in the line-up tomorrow night against the Canadiens. The 4th overall pick at the last draft has been playing down the importance of the game, stating that it was just another game, but chances are he’ll be highly motivated to play against the team that could have picked him first overall but didn’t…

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