The Montreal Canadiens (25-14-6) are set to face the Vancouver Canucks (16-23-5), with the puck drop scheduled for 7:30 pm ET.
The Habs will aim to bounce back after a lacklustre effort that resulted in a one-sided win for the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
Montreal’s forecheck, which is usually one of their main methods of generating sustained shifts in the offensive zone, was kept at bay by Detroit’s ability to clog up the neutral zone. Consequently, the Habs sleepwalked their way through the first two periods, and by the time they caught onto the Red Wings’ strategy, it was much too little, much too late.
As for the Canucks, they’d in the midst of yet another disappointing season, not to mention a five game losing streak. In fact, the last time the Canucks won a game in regulation was way back on December 19, a 4-1 victory versus the New York Islanders.
Simply put, this is a perfect opportunity for Montreal to quickly forget Saturday’s debacle and return to their winning ways.
That’s not to say they can afford to take a period off, a recurring theme this season, but the Canucks are currently stuck in rebuild limbo. They traded Quinn Hughes, but they have not made any other moves that suggest the team is set to tear everything down to the studs. Rebuilding on the fly is not only very difficult, it almost never works out for the team attempting to cut corners.
The Canadiens seem to be the exception to the rule, and even then, they clearly went out of their way to trade as many veterans as possible when they decided to enter into their rebuild.
Lineup Changes, Starting Goalie
Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis will turn to goaltender Jakub Dobes to guard the net versus the Canucks, which indicates the team has not yet decided what to do with their three netminders.
Jacob Fowler, the player with the least experience, provides the team with its best chance to win, while veteran Samuel Montembeault has been given relatively regular starts in January. Dobes, on the other hand, has only played in one game this month, a 7-5 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on January 1.
It stands to reason the Canadiens should attempt to slay the three-headed monster in their crease sooner than later. Goaltenders are creatures of habit, and not knowing when they’ll start means they live a very uneasy existence in the NHL.
As for the rest of the Canadiens lineup, we do not expect many changes, which connotes that Kaiden Guhle will once again feature on the third pairing, alongside rough-and-tumble defenceman Arber Xhekaj.
All things considered, Xhekaj was one of the few players who excelled on Saturday, including a pair of heavy hits on Red Wings forward J.T. Compher.
Arber Xhekaj sends Compher to the nether realm twice in one shift. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/mRN56LpGZv
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 11, 2026
Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Alex Texier
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov
Zachary Bolduc -Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher
Samuel Blais – Joe Veleno – Owen Beck
Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson – Alex Carrier
Kaiden Guhle – Arber Xhekaj
Jakub Dobes
Vancouver Canucks Projected Lineup
Jake DeBrusk – Elias Pettersson – Linus Karlsson
Conor Garland – David Kampf – Brock Boeser
Liam Ohgren – Max Sasson – Drew O’Connor
Evander Kane – Aatu Raty – Nils Hoglander
Tom Willander – Filip Hronek
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson – Victor Mancini
Nikita Tolopilo
How To Watch The Habs Vs. The Canucks
The Montreal Canadiens versus the Vancouver Canucks, Monday, January 12, 2026, will be aired on Amazon Prime and RDS. An instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Sportsnaut as soon as the final whistle blows.
