Game 46: Montreal Canadiens vs. Vancouver Canucks
Start time: 7:30 PM EST / 4:30 PM PST
In the Canadiens region: RDS (French)
Streaming: Prime Monday Night Hockey
The Vancouver Canucks weren’t supposed to be this bad. They had amassed a number of promising players in recent years, making a top-10 selection every year from 2016 to 2019. The best of those picks was Quinn Hughes, a steal at sixth overall in 2018 who went on to win the Norris Trophy at the end of the 2023-24 season. That year, the Canucks finished first in the Pacific Division with 50 wins, and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
Just over a season later, they’ve been forced to move on from one of the league’s elite defencemen. Hughes saw that the team was not only heading in the wrong direction, going from the division’s top team to its worst, but was also constantly in the news for rifts among the players on the roster — which had forced another trade last season when J.T. Miller was shipped to the New York Rangers. Hughes informed the club that he wouldn’t re-sign in Vancouver when his current deal was up at the end of the 2026-27 season, and he was dealt to the Minnesota Wild.
A month after that trade, Hughes still ranks third on the Canucks’ scoring list with 23 points, three back of Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek who co-lead the club. Pettersson, the fifth overall pick from 2017 who has a 102-point season under his belt, is currently sitting on the same point total through 36 games played that rookie Oliver Kapanen has produced with the Montreal Canadiens.
The addition of a handful of young players in the Hughes trade brought a boost for the Canucks, who rattled of four consecutive wins immediately after the transaction. That bump was short-lived, however, and they’ve since lost eight of their last nine games, outscored 41-20 in that time. In this second week of January, the Canucks are located at the very bottom of the league’s standings with just 37 points, and another rebuild is due after the one headlined by Hughes and Pettersson failed.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Canucks |
|---|---|---|
| 25-14-6 | Record | 16-23-5 |
| 48.9% (22nd) | Expected-goal share | 47.7% (26th) |
| 3.31 (7th) | Goals per game | 2.66 (27th) |
| 3.20 (23rd) | Goals against per game | 3.57 (30th) |
| 22.5% (10th) | PP% | 20.0% (15th) |
| 78.8% (20th) | PK% | 73.2% (30th) |
| 1-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-1-0 |
| Cole Caufield (21) | Most goals | Kiefer Sherwood (17) |
| Lane Hutson (36) | Most assists | Filip Hronek (23) |
| Nick Suzuki (48) | Most points | Elias Pettersson (26) |
Despite a 4-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday that may have some fans thinking otherwise, the Canadiens’ path from teardown to contention is going a lot more smoothly. While it was frustrating to lose a head-to-head battle for the top spot in the Atlantic, the Canadiens had just won three games in a row and took points from 13 of the previous 15 games. There’s still a chance to make this a 3-1 homestand with a win tonight.
The players were all frustrated with the limited space they had available versus Detroit, including on the power play. Vancouver’s penalty kill isn’t nearly as strong, however, third-worst in the NHL at 73.2%. Montreal already took advantage of it once this year to recover from a 0-2 deficit in the first game of the season series, going on to a 4-3 win. The Canucks have allowed six power-play goals in the past five games, so there will be a chance for Montreal to score some goals if they don’t just regard the situation as an opportunity to show off their talent in a game of keepaway.
When they decide to mix in a few shots with their passing, they won’t be facing Thatcher Demko in net. The goaltender is once again on Injured Reserve as he continues to struggle with a lower-body injury. In the 2023-24 season that stood as the Canucks’ most recent highlight, he started 51 games; he’s only been able to play 43 in the past couple of seasons before this latest setback, and is no longer able to maintain a .900 save percentage with the sporadic play. Kevin Lankinen will be the likely starter instead, a goaltender with just an .883 mark on the season, and who has yet to beat Montreal in three career games, allowing 12 goals.
On paper, this should be an easy win for Montreal, and being able to conserve some energy would be ideal as they travel to Washington to play on Tuesday. There isn’t a lot of hope in Canucksland at the moment, and the Habs can crush what little the team brings into tonight’s matchup with a quick start.
