GAME DAY PREVIEW: Game Thirteen- Canucks @ Montreal

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (6-6-0) vs MONTREAL CANADIENS (6-1-2)

BELL CENTRE, MONTREAL, PQ

4:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC, TSN2. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: HABS EYES ON THE PRIZE

This game feels like those videos you see posted on social media this time of year, where a car slowly drifts out of control onto an icy road, directly into the path of an oncoming vehicle, and there’s nothing they can do to avoid the impact. That’s how I feel about the Canucks right now. The Canadiens have made beating the Canucks look absolutely effortless, exposed this team for every minute flaw they have, and their willingness to battle back. It’s pretty grim.

So if you want to be hopeful that the Canucks are going to win tonight, knock yourself out. I get the need to want to try and keep things positive, I really do. I can’t do that, because I look at this team and the way they have played against the Canadiens (not just this season, either) and there’s absolutely nothing to suggest that they’re capable of getting another win against them. That shootout win was more about Carey Price having a bad night than anything the Canucks did.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, here’s what we can expect in tonight’s gong show...

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Nils Hoglander

Adam Gaudette — Brandon Sutter — Zack MacEwen

Jake Virtanen — Jay Beagle — Tyler Motte

Quinn Hughes — Jordie Benn

Nate Schmidt — Tyler Myers

Alexander Edler — Jalen Chatfield

Thatcher Demko

Braden Holtby

Scratched: Loui Eriksson, Olli Juolevi

Injured: Antoine Roussel (undisclosed), Travis Hamonic (upper body), Jayce Hawryluk (undisclosed), Micheal Ferland (head)

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin — Nick Suzuki — Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Corey Perry

Paul Byron — Jake Evans — Artturi Lehkonen

Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson — Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak — Victor Mete

Jake Allen

Carey Price

Scratched: Alexander Romanov

Injured: Joel Armia (concussion)

No changes for the Canucks. and let’s face it: barring a call to the taxi squad the only option available is Loui Eriksson and apparently things haven’t gotten that bad yet. Yet.

The Romanov scratch is a bit surprising, but I suppose when your team hardly breaks a sweat beating your opponent you can feel confident to tinker a bit with things.

We know the Canucks will be putting Thatcher Demko back in between the pipes tonight but the question is: do the Canadiens go with Price on the back to back or shift to Jake Allen instead? It’s not like Price had a heavy workload last night, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Japanese power metallers LOVEBITES are up today, with a track that came out last year off their ‘Electric Pentagram’ album, entitled “Golden Destination’. Try and enjoy the game, but if it goes like last night, do what I did: go to bed. Self care is underrated.