The <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations">Vancouver Canucks</a> (29-23-11) close out a four-game homestand when they host the Montreal Canadiens (30-27-6) tonight at Rogers Arena.
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It’s the start of a back to back set with the Canucks scheduled to face the Flames in a key Western Conference wild card showdown in Calgary on Wednesday.
<h1>What we saw</h1>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-141045 size-full" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP1.png" alt="" width="598" height="650" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP1.png 598w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP1-276x300.png 276w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px" />
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The club was back on the ice for a full morning skate after taking Monday off from practice. Captain <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-vancouver-canucks-practice-hughes-leaves-early-lekkerimaki-slotted-top-6-role-chytil">Quinn Hughes</a> joined the group in a non-contact jersey and took part in drills. However, he will miss his fourth straight game tonight. 
Drew O’Connor and defenceman Elias Pettersson are both battling the flu and left the morning skate early, but both are expected to play tonight.
The Canucks will show the Habs some new looks up front. <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-tocchet-says-no-disrespect-boeser-taking-a-away-sundays-game-dallas-stars">Rick Tocchet</a> is adding O’Connor speed to the left side with Elias Pettersson and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/what-happened-vancouver-canucks-carolina-hurricanes-brock-boeser-deadline-day">Brock Boeser</a>, while Teddy Blueger looks to rekindle the success he had last season centering Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland. Leading goal-scorer Jake DeBrusk will skate with Filip Chytil and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/boeser-trade-not-great-time-vancouver-canucks-play-jonathan-lekkerimaki">Jonathan Lekkerimäki,</a> while Pius Suter slides to a line with Nils Höglander and Kiefer Sherwood.
Kevin Lankinen makes his fifth straight start in goal. He and the Canucks fell 4-1 to Dallas in their last outing on Sunday night. Derek Forbort scored his first goal of the season and his first goal in more than two years. The last time the stay-at-home defender put a puck in the net was February 16, 2023, when he was with Boston. Forbort will be wearing an &#8216;A&#8217; as an alternate captain for the first time tonight.
The Canucks have been held to three goals or fewer in 14 straight games and 23 times in their last 24 outings. The team has a total of 32 goals in those 14 games – 30 of them in regulation time and a pair of overtime winners.
The team’s morning skate started with both power units getting in some early work ahead of the group. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-141046 size-full" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP2.png" alt="" width="604" height="556" srcset="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP2.png 604w, https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP2-300x276.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" />
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Tonight marks Teddy Blueger’s 400th NHL game. Today is Conor Garland’s 29th birthday.
<h1>The opponent</h1>
The Canadiens have been off since a 1-0 loss in Calgary on Saturday night. Jakob Dobes made 23 saves in the team’s fourth shutout loss of the season.
The team had won five straight before a 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton and the loss in Calgary to start a four-game road trip. Montreal will be in Seattle tomorrow night.
Cole Caulfield leads the Habs with 31 goals, while Nick Suzuki is their top point-getter with 65 in the season. Defenceman Lane Hutson leads all NHL rookies with 49 points, including 45 assists. He is the only first-year skater in the league to average more than 20 minutes of ice (22:23).
Former Vancouver Giant stalwart and Delta native Brendan Gallagher has 15 goals and is on pace for his best season since 2019-20 when he scored 22 times.
After serving as the backup on Saturday, Sam Montembault gets the start in goal tonight. He is 4-0-1 in his last five outings.
Montreal is in the thick of the Wild Card chase in the East. The Canadiens enter the night four points back of Columbus for the final wild card spot in that race.
The Habs beat the Canucks 5-4 in overtime on January 8th at Bell Centre. Nick Suzuki scored the winner on a 4-on-3 power play. The Canucks held a 3-1 lead halfway through the hockey game.
Tonight’s referees: Tom Chmielewski &amp; Chris Lee
Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse &amp; Ray Ferraro
<h1>What we heard</h1>
Rick Tocchet on the progress Quinn Hughes is making: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know about his status tomorrow, but it was a good day for him. He obviously did a little bit more than he has done, so he looked pretty good. But we didn&#8217;t have contact drills and stuff like that. So it&#8217;s hard to evaluate him. He felt really good yesterday, so we&#8217;ll go from there.&#8221;
Tocchet on players responding to his post-game comments Sunday about earning their ice time with better performances: &#8220;Well, if you want to change culture and want a winning organization, you have to earn it. That&#8217;s the way it is. You can&#8217;t hand stuff for (things) in the past. Let&#8217;s face it, we&#8217;re trying to become a winning club. Everybody has to earn their way. I hate the word entitlement. There is no entitlement around here. Listen, if we&#8217;re going to go anywhere those guys have to play. Don&#8217;t get me wrong. They&#8217;ve got to play and they&#8217;re going to get played tonight and hopefully they respond.&#8221;
Brock Boeser on team needing to find ways to score: &#8220;I think we&#8217;ve talked about that for a while now that we haven&#8217;t generated much offence and I, personally, think that when we&#8217;re getting some shots we&#8217;re not having much net front traffic and enough guys around the net getting those greasy goals we&#8217;ve talked about. That&#8217;s where a lot of the goals are scored in this league so we&#8217;ve got to get our noses a little dirty tonight.&#8221;
Boeser on adjusting to playing with others after spending past few seasons primarily with JT Miller as his centre: &#8220;It&#8217;s definitely a lot different when you play with a guy for two years, a guy to that degree of how good he is and how good a passer he is and how well he creates space. So, yeah, it&#8217;s definitely an adjustment and I feel like I&#8217;m trying to understand that it&#8217;s going to be different and that I&#8217;ve got to play a little different with other guys. I can definitely shoot the puck more and get net front and find those greasy rebounds.&#8221;
Make sure to join the Rink Wide Vancouver postgame live stream immediately following tonight’s game. Rink Wide will provide a full breakdown and comprehensive coverage of the Canucks game. When the final buzzer sounds, be sure to log onto Rink Wide and join the YouTube live chat to discuss the game with other Canucks fans. Subscribe to the Rink Wide YouTube channel and never miss an episode.
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The <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations">Vancouver Canucks</a> (29-23-11) close out a four-game homestand when they host the Montreal Canadiens (30-27-6) tonight at Rogers Arena.
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It’s the start of a back to back set with the Canucks scheduled to face the Flames in a key Western Conference wild card showdown in Calgary on Wednesday.
<h1>What we saw</h1>
<img class="alignnone wp-image-141045 size-full" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP1.png" alt="" width="598" height="650" />

<a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1899510010377597335">https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1899510010377597335</a>

The club was back on the ice for a full morning skate after taking Monday off from practice. Captain <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-vancouver-canucks-practice-hughes-leaves-early-lekkerimaki-slotted-top-6-role-chytil">Quinn Hughes</a> joined the group in a non-contact jersey and took part in drills. However, he will miss his fourth straight game tonight. 

Drew O’Connor and defenceman Elias Pettersson are both battling the flu and left the morning skate early, but both are expected to play tonight.

The Canucks will show the Habs some new looks up front. <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-tocchet-says-no-disrespect-boeser-taking-a-away-sundays-game-dallas-stars">Rick Tocchet</a> is adding O’Connor speed to the left side with Elias Pettersson and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/what-happened-vancouver-canucks-carolina-hurricanes-brock-boeser-deadline-day">Brock Boeser</a>, while Teddy Blueger looks to rekindle the success he had last season centering Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland. Leading goal-scorer Jake DeBrusk will skate with Filip Chytil and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/boeser-trade-not-great-time-vancouver-canucks-play-jonathan-lekkerimaki">Jonathan Lekkerimäki,</a> while Pius Suter slides to a line with Nils Höglander and Kiefer Sherwood.

Kevin Lankinen makes his fifth straight start in goal. He and the Canucks fell 4-1 to Dallas in their last outing on Sunday night. Derek Forbort scored his first goal of the season and his first goal in more than two years. The last time the stay-at-home defender put a puck in the net was February 16, 2023, when he was with Boston. Forbort will be wearing an 'A' as an alternate captain for the first time tonight.

The Canucks have been held to three goals or fewer in 14 straight games and 23 times in their last 24 outings. The team has a total of 32 goals in those 14 games – 30 of them in regulation time and a pair of overtime winners.

The team’s morning skate started with both power units getting in some early work ahead of the group. 

<img class="alignnone wp-image-141046 size-full" src="https://publish.canucksarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/JP2.png" alt="" width="604" height="556" />

<a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1899511548646989841">https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1899511548646989841</a>

Tonight marks Teddy Blueger’s 400th NHL game. Today is Conor Garland’s 29th birthday.
<h1>The opponent</h1>
The Canadiens have been off since a 1-0 loss in Calgary on Saturday night. Jakob Dobes made 23 saves in the team’s fourth shutout loss of the season.

The team had won five straight before a 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton and the loss in Calgary to start a four-game road trip. Montreal will be in Seattle tomorrow night.

Cole Caulfield leads the Habs with 31 goals, while Nick Suzuki is their top point-getter with 65 in the season. Defenceman Lane Hutson leads all NHL rookies with 49 points, including 45 assists. He is the only first-year skater in the league to average more than 20 minutes of ice (22:23).

Former Vancouver Giant stalwart and Delta native Brendan Gallagher has 15 goals and is on pace for his best season since 2019-20 when he scored 22 times.

After serving as the backup on Saturday, Sam Montembault gets the start in goal tonight. He is 4-0-1 in his last five outings.

Montreal is in the thick of the Wild Card chase in the East. The Canadiens enter the night four points back of Columbus for the final wild card spot in that race.

The Habs beat the Canucks 5-4 in overtime on January 8th at Bell Centre. Nick Suzuki scored the winner on a 4-on-3 power play. The Canucks held a 3-1 lead halfway through the hockey game.

Tonight’s referees: Tom Chmielewski &amp; Chris Lee

Tonight’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse &amp; Ray Ferraro
<h1>What we heard</h1>
Rick Tocchet on the progress Quinn Hughes is making: "I don't know about his status tomorrow, but it was a good day for him. He obviously did a little bit more than he has done, so he looked pretty good. But we didn't have contact drills and stuff like that. So it's hard to evaluate him. He felt really good yesterday, so we'll go from there."

Tocchet on players responding to his post-game comments Sunday about earning their ice time with better performances: "Well, if you want to change culture and want a winning organization, you have to earn it. That's the way it is. You can't hand stuff for (things) in the past. Let's face it, we're trying to become a winning club. Everybody has to earn their way. I hate the word entitlement. There is no entitlement around here. Listen, if we're going to go anywhere those guys have to play. Don't get me wrong. They've got to play and they're going to get played tonight and hopefully they respond."

Brock Boeser on team needing to find ways to score: "I think we've talked about that for a while now that we haven't generated much offence and I, personally, think that when we're getting some shots we're not having much net front traffic and enough guys around the net getting those greasy goals we've talked about. That's where a lot of the goals are scored in this league so we've got to get our noses a little dirty tonight."

Boeser on adjusting to playing with others after spending past few seasons primarily with JT Miller as his centre: "It's definitely a lot different when you play with a guy for two years, a guy to that degree of how good he is and how good a passer he is and how well he creates space. So, yeah, it's definitely an adjustment and I feel like I'm trying to understand that it's going to be different and that I've got to play a little different with other guys. I can definitely shoot the puck more and get net front and find those greasy rebounds."

Make sure to join the Rink Wide Vancouver postgame live stream immediately following tonight’s game. Rink Wide will provide a full breakdown and comprehensive coverage of the Canucks game. When the final buzzer sounds, be sure to log onto Rink Wide and join the YouTube live chat to discuss the game with other Canucks fans. Subscribe to the Rink Wide YouTube channel and never miss an episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKu45QW740

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Scenes from morning skate: Lankinen starts as Canucks shake up all 4 forward lines vs. Canadiens

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