Pat Hickey’s take on the Canadiens’ first game against the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN-690 Radio).

1 First time for everything

This is the first meeting between the Canadiens and the Golden Knights. The Vegas team paid a US$500-million expansion fee and they were able to stock their roster from the largest pool of unprotected players ever. The result is Vegas has had the most successful start of any expansion franchise in NHL history. Vegas had a 9-4-0 record going into their Monday night game in Toronto. The Canadiens are coming off a successful road trip that produced three wins in four games. Montreal has won five of its last seven starts and was only three points out of a playoff spot before Monday night’s action.

2 Who are these guys?

At the start of the season, this game figured to be a duel between Carey Price and Marc-André Fleury, but both goaltenders are injured. The Montreal starter is expected to be Charlie Lindgren, who shut out the Blackhawks 2-0 Sunday night to run his NHL record to 4-0. The Golden Knights will counter with Longueuil’s Maxime Lagacé, a 24-year-old who started the season with the AHL Chicago Wolves. He picked up his first NHL win Saturday night when Vegas beat Ottawa 5-4, but his numbers aren’t very good. He had a 1-3 record with a 4.43 goals-against average and a save percentage of .856 before Monday’s game against Toronto.

3 Ironman Weber

Defenceman Shea Weber is off to a strong start, but coach Claude Julien is a tad worried he’s playing too much. Weber has averaged 26:26 of ice time a game and that number is the fourth-heaviest workload in the NHL. Julien said improved play from the other defenceman might present an opportunity to balance the playing time, but he may have to wait until later this month, when David Schlemko makes his Canadiens’ debut following hand surgery. With three goals and eight assists, Weber shares the team scoring lead with Brendan Gallagher and Jonathan Drouin.

4 The other guys

Gerard Gallant, a popular assistant coach with the Canadiens before leaving to coach the Florida Panthers, has put together an entertaining Vegas team that ranked fourth in the NHL with 3.62 goals a game (all stats before Monday’s games). James Neal led the way with seven goals and 11 points, while Reilly Smith and David Perron each had four goals and six assists. The Vegas special teams are decent and it goes without saying they are better than Montreal’s. The Golden Knights scored on 20 per cent of their power plays to rank 12th, while the penalty-killing unit ranked 15th, with a success rate of 81 per cent.

5 Sick bay update

Goaltender Price remains day-to-day with a minor lowerbody injury and there’s no word on how long Charles Hudon will be out after suffering an upperbody injury Saturday in Winnipeg. Also out for the Canadiens are Schlemko (hand surgery), Nikita Scherbak (knee surgery) and Ales Hemsky (concussion). Fleury has a concussion and he’s not the only Golden Knights goaltender on the injured reserve list. He is joined by Malcolm Subban and Oscar Dansk, both out indefinitely with lower-body injuries. Clayton Stoner started the season on the IR because of an abdominal problem dating to last season and there’s no timetable for his return.