North Division: How the Canucks stack up against the Canadiens

Goaltending comparison

This is probably the easiest section to determine a winner, as Montreal has one of the NHL’s elite netminders in Carey Price and also traded for Jake Allen, who’s one of the best backups in the league.

Don’t get me wrong, Brayden Holtby and Thatcher Demko aren’t slouches, but neither of them is in their prime and are nowhere near as good as Price at his best.

More importantly, having an adequate backup in Allen will allow the Canadiens to rest Price in the regular season, as the team’s biggest downfall in recent years has been the heavy workload they’ve placed on the former Vezina winner, which has led to many injuries and inconsistent play.

All in all, it’s safe to say that Montreal takes the goaltending battle pretty easily.

Special teams

Last season, the Canucks’ powerplay and penalty were ranked fourth and 16th in the league, respectively. Meanwhile, Montreal came in at 22nd and 19th.

Vancouver might struggle more this year while shorthanded due to the absence of Tanev, who was the most frequently used defenceman on their penalty kill in 2019-20. I expect the Canadiens’ special teams to improve as well due to their blueline additions and further growth from their young forwards.

This means that we should expect the two teams to sport similar penalty killing percentages, but I still expect the Canucks’ powerplay to be significantly better than Montreal’s, as they just have more firepower up front.

For this reason, Vancouver should still have better special team units for this upcoming campaign.

Canadiens player to watch: Jake Allen

As previously mentioned, one of the glaring weaknesses of the Canadiens in recent years is their lack of an adequate backup behind Price.

This has led to them overworking their all-world netminder and wearing him down over the course of an 82-game season, resulting in lacklustre play from their star goalie.

With Allen now in the fold, Montreal seems to have found a great backup who can split starts with Price, but there are still some lingering concerns with his consistency.

Allen was fantastic last season in relief of Jordan Binnington but struggled mightily during the two previous years when he was forced into a larger role. The Canadiens will be in good hands if he could replicate his 2019-20 performance, but any sign of a struggle might force the team to risk overplaying and injuring Price, which would derail their entire season.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that Montreal went 10-3-2 against Canadian teams last year while the Canucks struggled to the tune of a miserable 5-10-0 record. I don’t believe this should be considered a big deal considering every team has undergone massive changes, but there’s no doubt that Vancouver fans will hope that the trend doesn’t continue into the 2020-21 campaign.

Ultimately, these two teams are evenly matched on paper and should have very similar point totals this year. However, I would give Vancouver a small edge since their young stars are slightly more experienced than Montreal’s youthful group, and both clubs should be in the running for a playoff berth. Let me know if you agree in the comments below!