All in all, not a completely disastrous roadtrip, but the injury gods laugh at this team yet again. Back home to play another ridiculous back to back (3 games in 4 nights yet again), starting with a very good Montreal squad.

Vancouver Canucks (4-4-0) vs. Montreal Canadiens (6-3-0)

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC

4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST

TV: CBC

Radio: Sportsnet 650

Back home, and it simply doesn't get any easier. Three games in four nights (well, four in six if you count Thursday in Nashville) and it's against the Habs, the Oilers tomorrow night, and J.T. Miller and the Rangers. Three highly emotional games, three must wins for the Canucks if they hope to keep pace early on.

The start of the trip went well, with big wins in Dallas and Chicago back to back, then that stupid morning game in Washington (and doesn't it seem like someone always gets seriously injured when they play these morning games?), before getting shellacked in Pittsburgh, and basically unlucky to get out of Nashville without a point.

They did manage to get player they'd been looking for via the trade route, snagging Lukas Reichel from Chicago for a 2027 4th round pick, which is a nice deal for the Canucks. Though he's been mostly on the left wing during his time in Chicago, Reichel can play centre, and likely will get a look in that position as the Canucks try to re-tool after losing Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger on that roadtrip.

And while there's no need to set off alarm bells just yet, the season being less than ten games in, small sample sizes and all that, the fact the Canucks sit dead last in scoring is concerning to say the least. On paper, this team should be scoring more than they are. And having lost one of the guys being counted on for his offensive contributions already this year, it's only going to intensify the pressure on Elias Pettersson.

It was pretty clear Pettersson was one of the better forwards on this trip, but that's just not enough right now, and if the Canucks don't want to find themselves having to dig out of a hole early on this season, he needs to start putting the puck in the net. That goes for Jake DeBrusk and Evander Kane, too. Kane's been exactly what we thought we were getting: the odd hit, lots of yapping, a ton of penalties, and embarrassing off ice behaviour.

Fortunately, Thatcher Demko's played outstanding so far this season, but the Canucks are going to need to start producing some goal support for him and Kevin Lankinen and stop wasting good performances in goal. They're also going to need to start garnering some Bettman points in these losses, and have a chance to actually put a little distance between themselves and the Oilers with wins on both nights and a little help from the Kraken tonight against Edmonton.

Tonight's gonna be a tough one, as this young Habs squad, likely pissed off after getting jobbed by some shockingly bad officiating in Edmonton the other night, will be looking to take it out on a Canucks team trying to rebound from a couple frustrating losses of their own.With this year's Calder trophy frontrunner Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield, and Nick Suzuki, this is a team that has a ton of talent, and are off to a solid start so far this year.

LINEUPS

From the ol' nhl dot com doohickey, here's what to expect tonight:

Canadiens projected lineup

Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky

Alex Newhook -- Oliver Kapanen -- Ivan Demidov

Josh Anderson -- Jake Evans -- Brendan Gallagher

Kirby Dach -- Joe Veleno -- Zack Bolduc

Mike Matheson -- Noah Dobson

Jayden Struble -- Lane Hutson

Arber Xhekaj -- Alexander Carrier

Jakub Dobes

Sam Montembeault

Scratched: Marc Del Gaizo, Joshua Roy

Injured: Kaiden Guhle (lower body), Patrik Laine (lower body), David Reinbacher (broken metacarpal)

Canucks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland

Jake DeBrusk -- Max Sasson -- Brock Boeser

Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Kiefer Sherwood

Arshdeep Bains -- Lukas Reichel -- Linus Karlsson

Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek

Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers

Elias Pettersson -- P.O Joseph

Thatcher Demko

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: Tom Willander, Joseph LaBate, Nils Aman

Injured: Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper body), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)

So don't expect too much from Reichel right out of the gate, as it will likely take a couple games for him to acclimatize with his new squad. He's supposed to be here in time, but if not, Nils Aman will be in for him. I thought P.O. Joseph played well against Nashville, so it'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up and hang onto that spot with Forbort out now week to week.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

On deck for you today we've got a band who don't do a lot of cover tunes, but when they do, they absolutely crush, and that's definitely the case with this one from TESTAMENT. From the upcoming 'No Life Til Leather: A Tribute To Metallica's Kill Em All', which also features contributions from MOTORHEAD, RAVEN, DIAMOND HEAD, SAXON, TYGERS OF PAN TANG, and others, this is 'Seek & Destroy'.

Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascism! Go Jays Go! Go Canucks Go!