10 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, SNP
In the first half of the season, the Canucks didn't really have too many 1 goal games and I mentioned this a few times. I wondered if this team would be able to handle the pressure of those games. Well, the Canucks have been in 5 one-goal games this month so far and have won 3 of them. That last game against Buffalo was a cheat though, as the Sabres should have never got that 2nd goal. Playing with leads in the third was a strength in the first half of the year, but now I am a little less confident. The Nucks are 2-1-1 so far on this home stand as they face the Canadiens tonight. The Habs have lost 3 in a row, including the last two in Alberta.
The new first line of Petey/Hogs/Garland did the job last game as Petey had two and Garland had one. The 2nd line with Suter, still boggles the shit of of me. Suter had some chance on the PP and on the regular line, but he is not the guy you want finishing. Brock and JT did the grunt work to get him a chance and he couldn't score. Podz might be better suited for that role.
Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky
Tanner Pearson -- Alex Newhook -- Joel Armia
Brendan Gallagher -- Jake Evans -- Josh Anderson
Michael Pezzetta -- Colin White -- Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Michael Matheson -- Kaiden Guhle
Arber Xhekaj -- David Savard
Jordan Harris -- Johnathan Kovacevic
Sam Montembeault
Cayden Primeau
Scratched: Jayden Struble, Jesse Ylonen
Injured: Joshua Roy (upper body)
Canucks projected lineup
Pius Suter -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser
Nils Hoglander -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Ilya Mikheyev -- Elias Lindholm -- Sam Lafferty
Nils Aman -- Teddy Blueger -- Vasily Podkolzin
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy -- Tyler Myers
Nikita Zadorov -- Noah Juulsen
Casey DeSmith
Arturs Silovs
Scratched: Mark Friedman, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Ian Cole
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Dakota Joshua (upper body)
Status report
Roy, a forward, was sent back to Montreal and is out indefinitely after he blocked an Evan Bouchard slap shot with his right hand during a 3-2 overtime loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Pearson, a forward who was a healthy scratch for the first time this season in Edmonton, returns to the lineup in his place. … Juulsen returns after being a healthy scratch for two games. He replaces Cole, who is "a little banged up," Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. Juulsen could have played "if push came to shove" but Tocchet wanted to get the 35-year-old defenseman some rest. -nhl.com
Game Day Battle Hymn
We need a team that gets some confidence by scoring a ton of goals....we need a flood of goals.
Go Canucks Go!