Tuesday October 27 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Montreal Canadiens - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Vancouver - TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 8 GP, 3-2-3, 9 points, fourth in Pacific Division
Montreal Canadiens: 9 GP, 9-0-0, 18 points, first in Atlantic Division
The World Series kicks off tonight, so you'll find the Canucks and Canadiens over on the Sportsnet Vancouver channel as Vancouver wraps up its tough five-game homestand by hosting the NHL's hottest team.
If they win tonight, the Montreal Canadiens will become only the third team in NHL history to start a season 10-0-0. The other two were the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres—featuring Ryan Miller in goal.
"It set us up for the rest of the season," Miller told
Kevin Woodley of NHL.com about that run in Buffalo. "When you can put nine, 10 wins together, it makes you believe you can do a lot of things."
The Sabres won the Presidents' Trophy that season with 113 points, then reached the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season before falling in five games to the Ottawa Senators.
Miller didn't participate in practice on Monday but is expected to get the start tonight.
Later this week, the Canucks play back-to-back games on the road. It doesn't sound like Jacob Markstrom will be back from his hamstring injury by then:
While I'm on the topic of goaltenders, particularly Miller...
That's also a solid segue to Season 2 of "Hockey Wives," which premieres this Wednesday night on the W Network. The show's bound to feature plenty of young Bodhi Miller and his mom Noureen DeWulf, as well as Brandon Prust's now-fiancee Maripier Morin and—new this season—Carey Price's wife Angela.
Click here for the full cast list. Even though his PTO in Florida didn't work out this year, ex-Canuck David Booth will also be getting some screen time alongside his model wife Ashley.
About the only thing that has gone wrong for the Canadiens this year was ex-Canuck Zack Kassian's car accident at the end of preseason. Since Kassian was suspended and shipped off to rehab, the ship has been sailing smoothly.
Of course, Brandon Prust is the player that came the other way. He told
Derek Jory at Canucks.com that a win tonight for the Canucks would go a long way towards erasing the bad memories of their slow start at home this year.
“It’s a good squad over there, from the back all the way up,” assessed Prust. “They’re off to a good start and we’re going to try and ruin it for them tomorrow night.”
More importantly, the Canucks are in search of their first home win of the season. They’re 0-2-3 at Rogers Arena so far.
“We’re trying to get our home identity rolling here and we want teams coming in here knowing they’re in for a long night. I don’t think there’s a better time to turn things around than tomorrow night.
“Playing a team that is 9-0-0, we’ve got a lot to prove.”
I'm not sure we'll see Prust's first fight as a Canuck at Rogers Arena tonight. The Habs have recorded just one fighting major this season, when Nathan Beaulieu tangled with Steve Ott of St. Louis on October 20.
Last year, the Canadiens' success was built from the net out thanks to an extraordinary season from Carey Price. This year, Price is playing just as well but is also getting plenty of help in front of him. The Habs are No. 1 in the league in both goals for (35) and goals against (12), new captain Max Pacioretty is one point off the NHL scoring lead with 11, P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov are tied with Washington's John Carlson for the lead among defensemen with 10 points and the Habs own the top FIVE spots in the NHL's plus-minus rankings.
A couple of other numbers of note from the Canadiens' season so far: the team has yet to allow a first-period goal, and has trailed for just 2:57 all year. If the Canucks can make a dent in either of those stats, it'll be a step in the right direction.
Coach Willie broke up the Kid Line in practice on Monday.
I like this idea. Hopefully a better balance of youth and experience on the second and third lines will help lead to a more balanced distribution of ice time tonight.
It sounds like Yannick Weber will stay in the mix on the blue line:
One area where the Canucks have improved dramatically this season is in the faceoff circle:
Henrik's currently clicking at a rate of 62.5 percent after an amazing 17-4 outing against Detroit last Saturday. Bo's at 55.9 percent, Brandon Sutter's 54.5 percent, Adam Cracknell's 47.4 and Jared McCann brings up the rear at 41.5 percent.
Last year's Montreal/Vancouver game at Rogers Arena was wildly entertaining, featuring the mano-a-mano battle between Daniel Sedin and P.K. Subban and capped off by Daniel's winning goal in overtime. Hopefully we'll see something similar tonight.
One quick note from the prospect pool to wrap up today. Not only is Brock Boeser playing well at the NCAA level, so is Vancouver's second-round pick from 2014, Thatcher Demko.
Demko has come back strong after his offseason hip surgery.
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