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Canadiens Set For Intriguing Home Opener Against Kraken

The Montreal Canadiens will lock horns with the Seattle Kraken in their home opener at the Bell Centre on October 14.

Tyler Major-Mcnicol

Feb 4, 2022; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Montreal Canadiens mascot Youppi! skates in the mascot game during the 2022 NHL All-Star Game Skills Competition at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Feb 4, 2022; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Montreal Canadiens mascot Youppi! skates in the mascot game during the 2022 NHL All-Star Game Skills Competition at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images / Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
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The Montreal Canadiens will have to wait until the fourth game of the season to welcome fans to the Bell Centre for their home opener, and the Seattle Kraken will be the first team that gets to experience the hockey-crazed Bell Centre faithful.

Amid the storylines, one that has fizzled out a little bit is the Shane Wright-Juraj Slafkovsky draft day stuff. Wright, of course, slipped down the draft board to the Kraken at pick No. 4, while Slafkovsky was the Canadiens' guy with pick No. 1.

The Canadiens have been linked in trade rumours with the Kraken, thanks to their fantastic center depth, an organizational strength on the back of general manager Ron Francis's fantastic scouting team.

The Bell Centre will certainly be proud to watch their Canadiens play, but the Kraken have a young, exciting team, with the likes of Wright, Matty Beniers and Berkly Catton as their center group of the future. They have made a statement that they will build down the middle. A very good Chandler Stephenson is the veteran of the bunch, who is one of the Kraken's more heavily-utilized centers.

Martin St. Louis's center group will be tested early on, which will help Hughes assess early on who can be moved and at what level of urgency to get a second-line center, when the eventual trading market squirts out a few center options that were hiding in the weeds.

Seattle's defense is also big and rugged, so the Canadiens could be on the receiving end of big hits, which could be fun if Arber Xhekaj is in the lineup. A little fisticuffs in the home opener feels like a tradition, just like a chien chaud and a Molson Canadian tall can, while watching on from the Bell Centre crowd.

Between the pipes, the likely starter for the Canadiens will be veteran goaltender Samuel Montembeault, and for the Kraken, it appears the club will elect to start Joey Daccord. If last year's trend is any indication, Philipp Grubauer will take a backseat.

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Tyler Major-Mcnicol
TYLER MAJOR-MCNICOL

Tyler is a former Algonquin College journalism graduate, and passionate hockey fan. His love for the Montreal Canadiens comes second to his love of hockey. With two daughter’s under four years old, hockey is always a topic of conversation. Nothing gets me quite excited like an empty canvas waiting to have a story written on it, and the smell of fresh ice in the air.

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