After their 6-5 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night, the Montreal Canadiens were given a day off on Friday, and coach Martin St-Louis also canceled the morning skate on Saturday. Perhaps his way of showing his men he believes in them and knows they don’t need to practice to fix what went wrong in Edmonton, handling their own emotions in the face of adversity. Although the penalty kill could use some work, that’s likely to come next week with only two games on the calendar.

Tonight, the Habs will take on the Vancouver Canucks, a team they swept last season with a 4-2 win in Vancouver in March and a 5-4 OT win in Montreal. The hosts, however, have won six of the last 10 duels between the two sides. So far this season, the Canucks have a .500 points percentage, with a 4-4-0 record and a 1-1-0 home record, which puts them 17th in the standings. Meanwhile, the Habs’ loss to Edmonton has dropped them to ninth place with a 6-3-0 record, but they remain first in the Atlantic division.

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The Canadiens have already announced that there won’t be a media availability before the game either; perhaps St-Louis didn’t want the media to make a big deal of who would get the start in net after Samuel Montembeault gave up six goals on Thursday. The Bécancour native now has a 2-3-0 record with a 3.62 goals-against average and a .842 save percentage; he has never finished a season with such numbers. Meanwhile, Jakub Dobes is on fire; he has won his four games and boasts a 1.47 GAA and a .950 SV. The youngster has never faced the Canucks, while Montembeault has a 3-3-1 record with a 4.13 GAA and a .862 SV. If St-Louis really goes on merit, starting Dobes would be the logical course of action.

As for the Canucks’ goaltenders, Thatcher Demko is having a good start to the season with a 3-2-0 record, a 2.24 GAA, and a .927 SV%, while Kevin Lankinen is 1-2-0 with a 3.60 GAA and a .883 SV%. Neither goaltender has an outstanding record against the Habs: Demko is 5-4-0 with a 3.42 GAA and a .899 SV%, while Lankinen is 0-1-1 with a 4.03 GAA and a .840 SV%. Demko was on duty in the Canucks’ last game, a 2-1 defeat against the Nashville Predators.

Up front, newcomer Evander Kane, who joined his hometown team this summer, is the hosts’ most productive scorer against the Canadiens with 23 points in 35 games. Tyler Myers is in second place with 20 points in 55 games, while Quinn Hughes rounds up the top three with 19 points in just 18 games. Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk both have 17 points in 21 and 23 games, respectively.

The Canucks will want to keep a close eye on captain Nick Suzuki, who’s got an eight-game point streak, and he leads the Habs against Vancouver with 18 points in 19 games. Brendan Gallagher has the second-highest production with 14 points in 30 games. Tonight’s tilt will be Gallagher’s 844th game with the Canadiens, which will allow him to join Ralph Backstrom in 19th place for the most games played with the Canadiens. If he stays healthy, by the end of his contract, the pesky winger will have played exactly 1,000 games with Montreal. Josh Anderson is the Canadiens' third most productive forward with 11 points in 21 games. As for Cole Caufield, he has eight points in as many games against the hosts.

It will be interesting to see if St-Louis sticks with the newly formed first power play unit he used against the Oilers. Ivan Demidov finally got on that first wave, at the expense of Zachary Bolduc. The Canadiens only has one power play in Edmonton and we didn't get to see the new unit for very long. 

The game will be an afternoon affair in Vancouver, meaning Habs fans out east will be able to watch it at 7:00 PM. The game will be broadcast on CBC and on TVA Sports. After the match, the Canadiens will head to Seattle, where they’ll take on the Kraken on Tuesday at 10:30 PM ET.

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