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Vancouver Canucks are home for 2 games, looking for a win against the Habs |
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Saturday November 17 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Montreal Canadiens - 4 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 21 GP, 10-9-2, 22 pts, second in Pacific Division
Montreal Canadiens: 19 GP, 10-6-3, 23 pts, third in Atlantic Division
The Vancouver Canucks will hope that a sleep in their own beds and a good dose of home cookin' will be enough to get them back on the winning track when they open a two-game homestand against the surprising Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
If you missed it — this game is an early, 4 p.m. start. I'm sure, as usual, the stands will be full of the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge jerseys worn by longtime Habs fans, as well as the many members of the Carey Price fan club that stretches all across British Columbia.
Price is confirmed to be starting for Montreal today. He got the 3-2 win in the Habs' last game, on Thursday in Calgary, and has a winning record of 6-4-3 so far this season. But Price's 2.99 goals-against average and .899 save percentage are a lot closer to his sub-par performance last year (3.11, .900) than his MVP season in 2014-15 (1.96, .933).
Though it seemed like Montreal GM Marc Bergevin was hanging onto his job by his fingernails this summer, the players he has acquired by trade in recent deals are the ones leading the charge for his team so far this season.
Bergevin's one-for-one swap that brought in Max Domi in exchange for Alex Galchenyuk has worked out almost perfectly. Used as a winger in Arizona, Domi has comfortably filled that second-line centre spot that has been a black hole in Montreal for so long and his 23 points so far this season have him leading the Habs—and in the top 10 leaguewide, tied with Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Ryan O'Reilly and Evgeni Malkin.
The Habs have also rejuvenated Tomas Tatar—basically a throw-in in the Max Pacioretty trade when he failed to produce after this trade-deadline acquisition by Vegas last season. While Pacioretty has just four points so far in his new home in the desert and has missed some time with injury, Tatar is second in scoring for Montreal with 16 points and is on pace to surpass his best-ever season, when he had 29 goals and 56 points with Detroit back in 2014-15.
Montreal's youth movement has also positively impacted Jonathan Drouin. Playing on Domi's wing, Drouin has 15 points so far this season and is also on pace for a career-best year.
Another more under-the-radar deal has also paid dividends for Bergevin. At the 2016 trade deadline, he acquired a 23-year-old part-time NHLer in exchange for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann as the Chicago Blackhawks loaded up on veteran experience in hopes of repeating as Stanley Cup Champions. That's the year the Hawks went out in the first round to St. Louis—and that young prospect is now Montreal's first-line centre, and a French Canadian to boot: Phillip Danault.
Montreal's top six is completed by two little balls of hate on the right side: Brendan Gallagher on the top line and Andrew Shaw right behind him. It's a fascinating group, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the alchemy plays out live.
And that's all without even mentioning Montreal's other pleasant surprise this season: rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He's soooo young—just turned 18 in July, and he looks it—but he has done enough to show he belongs at the NHL level. Playing as a third-line centre, he has 10 points in 19 games, which puts him in a tie with Philadelphia's Oskar Lindblom for fourth in rookie scoring.
I'm looking forward to seeing Kotkaniemi head-to-head against Elias Pettersson—who still has a six-point lead in the rookie scoring race despite his four-game pointless streak to wrap up the road trip.
Long term, I'm not worried about Petey. I'm sure the travel and the schedule is feeling like a lot for him right now, and I think it's safe to say that he could benefit from players around him with a bit more finish. I am in the camp that believes that Nikolay Goldobin is making some good progress this year and that his shots will eventually start going in: he shot 16 percent last year in his 38 games with Vancouver but is at just 5.3 percent this season.
Pettersson's production has to be hurt by the demolition of the Canucks' first power-play unit due to all the injuries. Before his concussion, he had four power-play points in his first five games. Since he came back, he has just one—from that wild game against Colorado.
Overall, the Canucks' power play is a not-terrible 7-for-41 since Pettersson returned to action on October 27. That's a 17.1 percent conversion rate that ranks 20th in the league over that stretch. But Pettersson's personal numbers with the man advantage seem to be suffering ever since Alex Edler went down.
There's no morning skate before Saturday's early game, but here are a couple of notes from Friday—including an Edler sighting:
Nothing officially official, but it seeeeems like Markstrom will get the start against Montreal.
Down on the farm, it was another rough night for the Utica Comets on Friday. Reid Boucher's season-long point streak came to an abrupt end as the Comets dropped a 4-0 decision to the Syracuse Crunch on home ice, despite having outshot their opponents 34-22.
Here are the lineup notes from Friday's game. They offer a quick snapshot of who's still injured and which players are being rotated through as healthy scratches.
I imagine Trent Cull will mix up his lineup as much as he can when the Comets hit the ice in Hartford to take on the Wolf Pack on Saturday.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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