Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Rem Pitlick

Mike Hoffman – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson

Joel Armia – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Jesse Ylonen – Ryan Poehling – Tyler Pitlick

Alexander Romanov – Joel Edmundson

Corey Schueneman – David Savard

Kale Clague – Chris Wideman

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

William Lagesson, Mathieu Perreault, Laurent Dauphin, Jordan Harris

Paul Byron (undisclosed), Justin Barron (lower-body), Michael Pezzetta (upper-body), Jeff Petry (lower-body), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body), Carey Price (knee), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Game Report

It was a matchup between the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference and the game delivered as promised. Some sloppy play and shoddy goaltending on both sides led to a very entertaining offensive display.

Nick Suzuki opened the scoring before the five minute mark of the game. With 19 goals in the bank and 11 games to go, Suzuki seems to be a lock for the first 20-goal season of his career. Two minutes later, Jake Evans added to the Canadiens lead unleashing a rocket.

An old friend got the better of Jake Allen with Tomas Tatar putting New Jersey on the board at the 7:11 mark of the game. And then it was Cole Caufield continuing his torrid pace giving the Habs a 3-1 lead before the end of the first period.

Speaking of old friends, it was Andrew Hammond in goal for the Devils this evening. Hammond was sent to New Jersey for forward Nate Schnarr, who has been a very welcome addition to the Laval Rocket. Hammond struggled on this night against his former teammates giving up three goals on eight shots in the opening frame.

Hammond was pulled in the third period after giving up six goals on 19 shots. It was a performance that looked a little worse given that the Canadiens did not manage a high-danger scoring chance (HDCF) in the first 40 minutes. Montreal managed just four HDCF in the third period which was their total for the entire game.

It wasn’t a masterpiece for Jake Allen either, who was guilty of allowing three soft goals of New Jersey’s four-goal output. The Devils managed just seven high-danger scoring chances in the game.

Up Next

The win moves the Canadiens ahead of the Arizona Coyotes as the teams jockey for the best odds of securing the number one pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

The Canadiens will be in Toronto on Saturday night to face the Maple Leafs for the final time this season.

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