(Vancouver) Rafaël Harvey-Pinard is having a difficult season on many levels, but he now has the chance to end it on a positive note.
The forward will indeed obtain a promotion to the second unit Thursday evening, during the duel between the Canucks and the Canadian.
In the absence of Joshua Roy, who returned to Montreal to undergo in-depth examinations, Harvey-Pinard will therefore play alongside Alex Newhook and Joel Armia, confirmed the Canadian’s replacement head coach, Trevor Letowski.
To replace him in the fourth line, Letowski will reinstate veteran Tanner Pearson, left out Tuesday in Edmonton. Pearson will play his first game in Vancouver since the Canucks traded him to the Canadiens in September. The Ontarian spent a little over four seasons with Tony Tanti’s former team.
Pearson didn’t seem particularly keen to return to his old town, where his stay ended in a mess. The Canucks had indeed messed up in the management of his one-hand operation, so much so that he only played 14 games last season. “I don’t really like talking about my hand, but I suspected that the subject would come up here,” he responded to a question about this injury, without adding anything else.
But back to Harvey-Pinard. After a 2022-2023 campaign beyond expectations, marked by a harvest of 20 points, including 14 goals, in 34 games, he has been limited to a single goal and seven assists in 31 outings so far. However, two different injuries cut his season into three. Since his most recent return to the game, at the beginning of March, he was confined to the fourth trio, relegated there due in particular to the outbreak of Roy. We even had to use him in the center due to a shortage of bodies, even though he is a natural winger.
“It wasn’t an easy year for him because of the injuries,” recalled Letowski, after the Habs’ optional training. But he is very valued in our locker room. I know his offensive stats aren’t great, but his details are still on point. He has a positive impact on the game every night, but if the stats aren’t there. I expect him to be offensive in the role we give him tonight. »
A scenario not to be repeated
PHOTO NICK WASS, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Samuel Montembeault
Samuel Montembeault will defend the net. He and his teammates will try to forget their last visit here, which ended in a 7-6 overtime defeat. CH took a 4-0 lead, before seeing the Canucks score five goals in a row in 12 minutes.
This match had somehow marked the beginning of the end for Montreal, since Sean Monahan had fallen in combat during this match and never returned to the game of the season.
“We don’t think it will be a repeat, we don’t think like that. But it was one of the craziest matches I played. We will try to avoid that! “, agreed defender Kaiden Guhle.
That said, the Habs will have a significantly improved version of the Canucks in front of them compared to last year. They are indeed prancing at 1er rank in the Western Conference with 94 points (43-18-8). They are notably transported by Quinn Hughes, 1er among NHL defensemen with 79 points in 69 games.
“He’s a special player. There are very few like him. We will have to watch him, because he will wander everywhere in our zone, he will not stay at the blue line,” underlined Arber Xhekaj.
Except that the CH arrives at Rogers Arena with a certain confidence, two days after a narrow 3-2 defeat in overtime against another club that knows how to play hockey, the Oilers.
“It was frustrating, our guys really thought we won it,” Letowski admitted. But the positive points are much more numerous than the point we lost. The challenge is to start again. It was one of our best efforts to defend as a unit of five. We have to put the players back in this state of mind. »
Casey DeSmith, very briefly a member of the Canadiens last summer, will defend the Canucks net.