Wednesday November 2 - Vancouver Canucks at Montreal Canadiens - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet 360 - Sportsnet 1
Vancouver Canucks: 9 GP, 4-4-1, 9 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Montreal Canadiens: 9 GP, 8-0-1, 17 pts, first in Atlantic Division
The Vancouver Canucks held a well-attended optional skate on Wednesday morning at the Bell Centre as they prepare to kick off their road trip against the NHL-best Montreal Canadiens.
Could this be the last-ever game in Montreal for local boy Alex Burrows?
Burrows is expected to return to the lineup tonight after missing the last four games with a neck injury.
Dorsett also missed the last four games, which means the Canucks were 4-0-1 with the pair of fourth-liners in the lineup, and have gone 0-4-0 without them. It'll be interesting to see if they can provide a spark for their team and help tighten up the defensive play, which wasn't as strong while they were absent.
Sounds like they're expecting Tanev will be ready to go. Troy Stecher has been re-assigned to Utica. Tom Nilsson is the defenseman who has been rehabbing an ankle injury with the big club since training camp and is now, apparently, ready for game action.
Sportsnet's Montreal reporter, Eric Engels, posted a good article about how the Canucks are keeping a positive attitude despite their recent losing skid.
Click here to read how the team is staying committed to its system and to its goal of making the playoffs.
“We’re playing against the best team in the league,” Daniel Sedin told Engels. “It’s the perfect opportunity for us to prove to each other we can play on that level."
Engels also got the backstory on this tweet by strength and conditioning coach Roger Takahashi, which went out on Monday morning.
According to Engels:
When Sportsnet caught up with Canucks general manager Jim Benning on Tuesday, he said that he spoke with Takahashi for clarification on the tweet.
“That had nothing to do with any of our players,” said Benning. “He has that set up, and every day he tries to do some inspirational kind of tweet.”
Hardly unusual for a trainer. Seems that Takahashi's choice of messages on Monday just had a little more bite than usual.
On Tuesday, another old story made the rounds again.
Jim Benning has been saying since summer that he'd like to add a scoring winger. Add in the fact that scoring winger Anton Rodin won't be available for at least another month—and that the Canucks are 30th in the league in scoring heading into the second month of the season—and it's obvious that Benning should be keeping his eyes open.
Cue the Evander Kane talk once again. Kane has been on injured reserve for the last three weeks after suffering cracked ribs when he slid heavily into the boards during Buffalo's first game of the season.
CapFriendly is reporting that he's expected back in action in mid to late November.
Off the ice, Kane learned last week that he won't face charges stemming from last season's incident at the Buffalo bar—and he's keeping his social media game cute, for the moment.
I don't expect Benning to swap one of the Canucks' top prospects for immediate scoring help, especially when they've got a guy in the system who should be able to step right into that role after he finishes his sophomore year of college.
Back to today's game. Last season, Montreal rolled into Rogers Arena with a 9-0-0 record on October 27, 2015 and suffered their first defeat of the year at the hands of the Canucks by a score of 5-1. Montreal's only loss so far this season came in a shootout against Ottawa in the second game of the year, on October 15, so the Canucks have a chance to play spoiler once again.
B.C. boy Shea Weber has been a great fit with the Habs. He was named the NHL's second star of the month after putting up four goals and 10 points along with a league-leading plus-12 in his first nine games in a Montreal uniform.
Montreal's also thrilled to have another B.C. boy, Carey Price, back in the lineup. After a strong performance at the World Cup of Hockey, Price missed the first three games of the season with a bad case of the flu. Since he has gotten back between the pipes, he has gone 5-0-0 with a .954 save percentage and 1.40 goals-against average.
Price has given up just seven goals in his first five games, so he's not going to make it any easier for the Canucks to bump their offensive slump tonight.
Montreal has also been playing well offensively, ranked fourth in the league with an average of 3.44 goals per game. Vancouver is managing barely half that number: 1.78 goals per game.
As well as Weber, keep an eye out for other new Habs Alexander Radulov and Andrew Shaw. Both have made their presence known in their own ways since donning the
bleu, blanc et rouge.
Early start time, of course—4:30 Pacific, on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»