Tonight, the New Jersey Devils (2-1-1) look to string together their second-straight victory against the Montreal Canadiens (3-1-1). Following an opening night loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens won three of four against the Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Capitals, and Buffalo Sabres.
Given Montreal’s 3-1 win against the Sabres on Monday night, it’s likely the Devils see goaltender Sam Montembeault as Jake Allen saved 36 of 37 just last night. Montembeault had a game last season against New Jersey where he saved 38 of 40.
Lines and Pairings
Devils –
Forwards
Toffoli-Hughes-Meier
Palat-Hischier-Bratt
Mercer-Haula-Holtz
Lazar-McLeod-Bastian
Defense
Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Bahl-Marino
Smith-Hughes
Goalies
Vanecek
Schmid
Canadiens –
Forwards
Caufield-Suzuki-Harvey Pinard
Anderson-Newhook-Salfkovsky
Pearson-Monahan-Gallagher
Ylonen-Evans-Pezzetta
Defense
Matheson-Savard
Harris-Kovacevic
Xhekaj-Barron
Goalies
Montembault
Allen
Keys to the Game
Time to Heal
With the Devils having just two games in a span of eight days, New Jersey has had time to get healthy. Through just the first four games of the season, three different forwards have missed some time. Tomas Nosek was placed on injured reserve Monday morning, he presumably won’t be back until at least the end of this week.
However, the long breaks between games allowed for forwards Erik Haula and Nico Hischier, who were both injured. The long break was a much-needed help for the Devils.
Michael McLeod had to play a lot of minutes against top tier opponents he wouldn’t normally have to play against. This resulted in pretty lackluster impacts with him on the ice. Luckily that shouldn’t be the case tonight with Haula and Hischier both practicing yesterday and expected to return.
Jack “M-V-P” Hughes
Through about two weeks of hockey, Jack Hughes has the highest points per game of any player. While he has only played four games, the superstar center has 10 points. In total, this is tied for third in the NHL only behind Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat who have played two more games.
If there was gonna be a year for Hughes to win the Hart trophy for the league’s most valuable player, this would be it. This is especially the case with Connor McDavid being week-to-week with an injury.
Where To Watch
The Devils and Canadiens matchup is slated for a 7:15 pm ET puck drop. The game can be seen on MSG SN2.