It's the latest edition of the Magical Misery Tour, as the Canucks head to their safe space, which apparently is everywhere but home. The halfway mark of the season is almost here, and the outlook is grim.

Vancouver Canucks (18-12-8) vs. Montreal Canadiens  (18-18-3)

4:30 pm PST; 7:30 pm EST

TV: Amazon Prime

Radio: Sportsnet 650

As far as rock bottom games go, Friday night was right up there for the 2024-25 edition of the Vancouver Canucks. Sure, they got goalie'd, but the way mistakes end up in the back of their net right now is giving us a serious feeling of deja-vu. This team has more in common with the Canucks from two seasons ago than last year's team. It's obvious that despite some of the additions they made that are doing really well (Jake DeBrusk, Kevin Lankinen, Keifer Sherwood) the chemistry this team had last season has been messed with, and it could well, thanks to a slew of injuries to their best players, cost them their season.

Alarmist? Maybe. But maybe you're also new here? I mean, we've seen this same damn story play out so many times, and this time it's extra frustrating because it really looked like the management of this team were doing things differently. Now they find themselves in the unenviable position of having to trade away a piece of the core just to try and stop the bleeding. There's no possible way that they get a fair return on either J.T. Miller or Elias Pettersson, and seeing people trying to say their alright with having either of these guys traded away just leaves me scratching my head. The Miller hate especially, makes little sense. Sure, let's get rid of the guy whose points per game average is second only to Pavel Bure because sometimes he makes defensive miscues and he has a temper. Or ship out Petey because he's moody and (like Miller) has struggled a bit after some injury issues.

Losing one of these guys, regardless of what comes back, means it's pretty much over for the Canucks again this season, and considering the forward progress made last season, it calls into question if that was actual progress or just a hot streak.

So is there any hope? Well, they're heading out on the road for an Eastern road swing, and one of the few good stories about the Canucks season this year is how well they've played outside of Rogers Arena. The problem is that they've got a pretty tough slate of games, with tonight's contest in Montreal by far the most winnable of the 5. From here they head to Washington to take on a Capitals team that has continued to roll even when they had Alexander Ovechkin out of the lineup with a broken leg. Then, it's a lovely gift from the NHL's scheduling department, a Friday night contest in Raleigh, North Carolina, then up to Toronto, for their third game in four nights against the Leafs on HNIC. Set up to be slaughtered for the frothing masses. They end it with a visit to Winnipeg, before returning to a pair of divisional contests against the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers to wrap up next week.

They have 7 games over the next two weeks, and if the Canucks want to have any chance of keeping the wild card slot they're currently holding, they're going to have to go on a run here, because there's FIVE teams nipping at their heels at the moment, and after tonight, eight of the next nine games are against teams ahead of them in the standings. Losing, especially in regulation, is simply not an option here.

And while we said this game is the most winnable of the bunch, that's not meant to be a slight against the Habs. Currently one of the NHL's hottest clubs, they've won 7 of 10 and are a pretty solid comparable against the Canucks in their current state. They're fast, skilled and play hard, and with some solid goaltending, are going to make a push for a playoff spot if they can stay healthy.

LINEUPS

The projected lineups for today's game was scrawled on a bag that contained a delicious smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz's Deli (not really, but I would really like one right now) or maybe nhl dot com?

CANUCKS (18-12-8) at CANADIENS (18-18-3)

7:30 p.m. ET; RDS, Prime

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser

Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Pius Suter -- Conor Garland

Danton Heinen -- Teddy Blueger -- Kiefer Sherwood

Nils Hoglander -- Max Sasson -- Jonathan Lekkerimaki

Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers

Carson Soucy -- Noah Juulsen

Derek Forbort -- Vincent Desharnais

Kevin Lankinen

Arturs Silovs

Scratched: Erik Brannstrom, Guillaume Brisebois

Injured: Thatcher Demko (back spasms), Elias Pettersson (upper body), Filip Hronek (upper body), Dakota Joshua (lower body)

Canadiens projected lineup

Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky

Alex Newhook -- Kirby Dach -- Joel Armia

Josh Anderson -- Christian Dvorak -- Brendan Gallagher

Emil Heineman -- Jake Evans -- Michael Pezzetta

Lane Hutson -- Mike Matheson

Kaiden Guhle -- Alexandre Carrier

Arber Xhekaj -- Jayden Struble

Sam Montembeault

Jakub Dobes

Scratched: None

Injured: Patrik Laine (illness), David Savard (upper body)

Hoo boy, here we go. The good news? We mayyyyyyybe getting Quinn Hughes back tonight, and that will be a massive boost if he's ready to go. There are a mere handful of players in the league who can singlehandedly tilt the odds, and our captain is one of them. Elias Pettersson was skating again today, as was Thatcher Demko, but neither will play til later this week. And now for the bad news...

You have to feel for Dakota Joshua. After his testicular cancer diagnosis this summer, and the hard work he put in post-treatment, it looked like he was finding his game again, so to see him go down with another injury just sucks. The Canucks have brought Jonathan Lekkerimaki up from Abbotsford (convenient call up, as the AHL Canucks were in Laval this weekend) and he'll be on the fourth line tonight with Max Sasson and Nils Hoglander.

Looks like Patrik Laine will be out again with an illness, and it'll be Sam Montembault vs Kevin Lankinen in the creases tonight.

GAME DAY CHATTER

Pregame thoughts from the coach... And from yesterday, the Cap'n... JPat reminding everyone of the 3 stars the last time these teams met back in March... and of a wild one in 2022... And Petey answering questions about where he wants to be...

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

BAT is a side gig for MUNICIPAL WASTE's Ryan Waste, and they're a fun, unabashed MOTORHEAD worshipping power trio. They put out an album last year called 'Under The Crooked Claw' on Century Media Records, and from that disc, this is 'Streetbanger'.

Remember, the game is on Amazon Prime tonight, so let me save you an angry tweet at Sportsnet when you can't find the game. Enjoy it, folks. Go Canucks Go.