The Canadiens host the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at the Bell Centre.

The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champions, and they are playing like champions with 60 points so far this season, enough to make them second place in the Western Conference.

The Habs, who were leading the league at the beginning of the season, have sunk to sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

They now have only three wins in their past 17 games.

However the Canadiens are not worried, and feel certain they can turn their fortunes around.

"There's no panic in here," said defenceman Nathan Beaulieu.

"Obviously we're not overly happy with the situation we're in right now, but the vibe in our dressing room and our practices, and the way we're preparing for games is we know we're a good hockey club."

"We're certainly not playing up to standard right now but things can turn on a dime."

Brendan Gallagher, knows he and his teammates have hard work ahead of them and comes across as pessimistic.

"The biggest thing with us right now is we're kind of in a streak of win one, lose one, win one and it's hard to gain ground," he said.

"Certainly if you look at our schedule coming up it's not going to be an easy challenge."

In the next two weeks the Canadiens face the Blackhawks one more time, as well as the St. Louis Blues, but also face the Bruins and the Maple Leafs, which have worse records than the Habs, and have two matches against the worst team in the league, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

One criticism that Coach Michel Therrien has faced concerns aging defenceman Andrei Markov, who is once again being paired with PK Subban.

"We've tried to cut down Andrei's ice time and we decide this week to bring those two guys together, and obviously there's a chemistry with those two, and we know that, but we can't forget it's a marathon and we need Markov to have gas until the rest of the year," said Therrien.

Devante Smith-Pelly, who was present when Alex Galchenyuk was allegedly attacked on Sunday, will not be playing tonight.

Jeff Petry will play, as will Sven Andrighetto.