The Vancouver Canucks (16-23-5) visit the Montreal Canadiens (25-14-6) at Bell Centre. Tonight’s game is set to begin at 4:30 pm PT, and will be streamed on Amazon Prime. Both teams are coming off shutout losses on Saturday night. The Canucks fell 5-0 in Toronto, while the Habs dropped a 4-0 decision at home against Detroit.
What we saw
The struggling Vancouver Canucks will have to get by without their leading goal scorer tonight when they face the Canadiens. Kiefer Sherwood is dealing with a minor injury and will miss his first game action of the season. With Sherwood’s 17 goals out of the lineup,
Jake DeBrusk will be the team’s leading goal scorer in action with a dozen goals on the season. Sherwood’s spot in the lineup will be filled by Conor Garland, who returns after missing five games with an upper-body injury suffered on December 30th against Philadelphia. Like so many of his teammates, Garland is in a scoring slump, with an empty-net goal in New York against the Rangers as his lone goal in the past 13 games he’s played.
With Thatcher Demko on injury reserve for the second time this season, Nikita Tolopilo was recalled from Abbotsford on Sunday and will get thrust into the starter’s role tonight. It will be his first NHL start since a 4-2 win over Minnesota on December 6th. The big Belarusian played 20 minutes in relief of Kevin Lankinen two nights later against Detroit. Tolopilo is 2-1 with a 2.74 GAA and a .911 save percentage at the NHL level this season.
Victor Mancini was also recalled from the AHL on Sunday and will be plugged into the lineup in Montreal, replacing Zeev Buium, who will sit out for the first time since being acquired by the Canucks exactly one month ago. Mancini will be paired with veteran Marcus Pettersson while Tom Willander bumps up to play with Filip Hronek on an all-right-handed top pair.
The Canucks have dropped the first three stops of their six-game road trip and have been outscored 15-4 in the process. They have allowed five goals in each of the first three games in Buffalo (5-3 L), Detroit (5-1 L) and Toronto (5-0 L). While the team is winless in six (0-4-2), the Canucks have not suffered four straight regulation losses at any point this season.
The Canucks have gone 92:57 since Jake DeBrusk’s power play goal in the second period in Detroit.
The Opponent
The Canadiens saw their three-game win streak come to an end on Saturday. They failed to beat John Gibson, who made 27 saves for the shutout. Montreal had just 12 shots through 40 minutes before generating 15 shots over the final period. Despite the loss, the Habs are still 8-2-2 in their last 12 outings. Jacob Fowler allowed three goals on 23 shots on Saturday. Jakub Dobes gets the start tonight. The 24-year-old is 13-5-3 this season with a 3.01 GAA and an .889 save percentage.
Nick Suzuki leads the team in scoring with 14 goals and 48 points while Cole Caufield is the team leader with 21 goals. Six Canadiens – including defencemen Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson – have more points than any Canucks skater this season.
On Saturday, Suzuki appeared in his 500th NHL game – all with Montreal. The 26-year-old, who will represent Canada at next month’s Olympics, has never missed a game since debuting in the NHL in 2019. It’s the second longest active streak in the league behind Colorado’s Brent Burns (969).
The Habs start the day third in the Atlantic Division, but just three points out of top spot in the Eastern Conference. Only six teams leaguewide have more victories than the Canadiens this season. Interestingly, Montreal is a pedestrian 12-10-4 on home ice, but an impressive 13-4-5 on the road.
The Montreal lineup includes Sammy Blais who was instrumental in Abbotsford’s Calder Cup championship last spring. Blais signed with the Canadiens last summer, but was plucked off waivers by Toronto early in the season. When the Maple Leafs put him back on waivers, he was reclaimed by the Habs in late November. He has two goals and three assists in 10 games for Montreal.
News and notes
Montreal defeated Vancouver 4-3 at Rogers Arena on October 25th.
The referees for tonight’s game are Dan O’Rourke and Pierre Lambert. This will be Lambert’s fifth time working a Canucks game this season. That is more than any other referee. It’s his first Canucks game since a 4-3 OTL in Carolina on November 16th.
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