Game Preview #57: New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (28-24-4) vs. Montreal Canadiens (22-27-8)

The Time: 2:00 PM EST

The Broadcast: MSG

Key Takeaways After the high of the Stadium Series victory against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Devils followed that up with resounding duds against the Capitals and the Rangers. While they’re ostensibly .500 on the season, they’ve been mediocre for long enough to call them what they are: mediocre, even when healthy. They’ll have to play the way they did at their best last season if they want a shot at the playoffs. They enter Saturday with an afternoon game against the Canadiens, who are similarly in a rough patch, if not rougher, having lost their last four, with only three wins in their last ten games. The Canadiens are another one of those low-scoring teams that have struggled to find offense outside their top few forwards. The last time the Devils played a team like that (against the Kraken), they won out 3-1 off a stellar effort from Nico Daws.

The last time the Devils played the Canadiens . . .

. . . they lost. They lost 3-2. That began my current 0-5 in my last five recaps record, so to say I’m bitter and would like the curse to end is an understatement. That was back in January 17, and it was a particularly frustrating game because—much like against the Rangers—they had a ton of power play time. Unlike the Rangers game, the Devils converted twice out of four power play opportunities, both on a four-minute high-sticking penalty. They struggled mightily to score at five-on-five, however. Even worse, that was the famous game that saw John Marino unable to clear Cole Caufield from the crease, who scored a late goal to put the Devils under and rob them of at least a point.

The Devils have made negligible adjustments to their power play and have only gotten worse since then. Nevertheless, the Canadiens remain the second-worst team in the league on the penalty kill with just a 73.6% kill rate. If there’s any game that might give New Jersey’s man advantage unit some confidence, it’s this one. If they can’t score against this team on the power play, then you might as well just burn that unit down with ritual fire and dance on the ashes.

The Montreal Canadiens are . . .

. . . the same team the Devils played last time, largely. They remain one of the worst teams in the league (though now are only seven places behind the Devils), they’re still woeful on special teams, and their goalies are still bad. What’s more, they’ve lost four in a row and have just three wins in their last ten games. They’ve lost to the Penguins 4-1, the Sabres 3-2, the Capitals 4-3, and the Rangers 7-4. The Devils have also lost to the Rangers and Capitals in very recent memory, and they certainly lost much worse than the Canadiens did. Regardless, the Canadiens—though on paper are theoretically worse than the Devils (I know, I’ve written that a lot this season, forgive me)—in actuality they’re not too far away in the standings and overall play in recent memory.

The Canadiens will meet the Devils mostly at full-strength aside from Kirby Dach, who was injured at the beginning of the season. Jayden Struble, a young defenseman the Canadiens media seems to like quite a lot, was injured against the Penguins and, though he is listed day-to-day, is not expected to play against New Jersey.

Nick Suzuki (20-22-53), Cole Caufield (19-26-45), and Mike Matheson (8-34-42) remain the teams top scorers. They have have three double-digits goal-scorers to the Devils’ eight.

I’ll post more lineup information in the comments as it becomes available.

Next goaltender, same as the last goaltender (or, grinding down Nico Daws)

The Devils are playing Nico Daws too much. Yes, I know he’s been their only competent goaltender of late (not that Akira Schmid ever was given a chance to re-prove himself in the NHL). Yes, they need to give themselves their best chance at winning every night. But they’re grinding down a young goaltender who just returned from major hip surgery by playing him six times in twelve days. We—myself included—have cut Ruff some reasonable slack this season for having poor goaltending throughout, but it’s also clear that his defensive systems are hard on goalies, our current personal is hard on goalies, and he’s hard on goalies by overplaying them. He did this with Vanecek, too, by refusing to play Schmid even when Vanecek was languishing.

I’m all for riding the hot hand, but this isn’t the 1990’s. Though Daws doubtless wants to play every game possible, athletes are not known for being reasonable people when it comes to sitting out games to benefit their long-term health. Daws should have been given a night off before the Rangers game; instead, he was hung out to dry twice against them and the Capitals, and he wasn’t quite sharp enough to cover for their defensive lapses this time.

Though lineup information was not available as I write this (7:30 PM, Friday night), I hope and imagine Isaac Poulter will get the start against the Canadiens. Daws needs a moment to regroup and catch his breath. He had a 14-7-1 record and a .908 SV% in Utica this season, earning himself a recent NHL contract for his performances. Amanda Stein recently had this write-up about his journey to the NHL. Poulter credits his goaltender coach at Utica, Brian Eklund, as one of the major factors for his success. Food for thought. Poulter doesn’t need to be a long-term solution in the way we’ve been hoping Daws and/or Schmid is; I’ll just be happy if he’s able to give us .900 performances or above, so that Daws can rest.

One last note

Nate Bastian was placed on injured reserve by the Devils on Friday night. He was injured by Matt Rempe, but apparently the Department of Player Safety didn’t ‘deem it worthy of suspension.’

The Devils have recalled Brian Halonen from Utica in his stead.

Your Thoughts

Don’t forget it’s an afternoon game, folks. 2:00 PM. The Devils have very few bullets remaining in the chamber this season, and they can’t afford to waste any. Every game is a must-win from here on out, quite literally, if they want to make the playoffs. So what do you think happens tonight? Can they string a few wins together and give us some modicum of hope, or will this weekend become a death knell for this struggling team? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading.