Despite their loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens are still sitting in second place in the league behind the Colorado Avalanche. Still getting burned and losing after their horrendous start against the Flyers might nonetheless have been a wake-up call, and tonight, the Habs will try to get back to their winning way.
Martin St-Louis has already confirmed that Jakub Dobes will be in the net, and while the Canadiens recalled Marc Del Gaizo from the Laval Rocket, the defenseman is not expected to play. Like last time, he’s an insurance policy for the road rendered necessary after Kaiden Guhle’s injury. The team announced on October 18 that the Albertan would be sidelined for four to six weeks because of a lower-body injury, but on Wednesday, he was back on his skates in Brossard before the team practice. This does not mean that his return is imminent, but it’s still a big step in the right direction, even if he wasn’t wearing his gear.
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Martin St-Louis confirmed on Wednesday that Jakub Dobes would be back in the net, making Thursday night’s game his seventh of the season. The young netminder has been red-hot so far and remains undefeated with a 6-0-0 record, a 1.97 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. Against the Devils, the 24-year-old has a 0-0-1 record, a 3.74 GAA, and a .909 SV%.
Meanwhile, the Devils have yet to confirm who’ll be the masked man on duty tonight. After being sidelined for a couple of weeks, Jacob Markstrom has recently come back to action, losing his first start but winning his second one 4-1 against the Los Angeles Kings. Since that game was the first of a back-to-back, Jake Allen played the team’s last game, a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Logic dictates that Markstrom should be facing the Canadiens on Thursday night; he’s got a 9-8-3 record against the Habs with a 2.21 GAA and a .925 SV. As for Allen, the former Hab has a 5-5-0 record against Montreal with a 2.91 GAA and a .899 SV.
Thursday night’s tilt will be the first of three behind the two sides this season. The other two will take place in early April and be played back-to-back. New Jersey has won six of the last 10 duels, including the last one, which was a 4-0 shutout in Montreal with Markstrom between the pipes and Montembeault in the Canadiens’ net.
Up front, Nick Suzuki will try to extend his point streak to 13 games, equaling the longest streak by a Canadiens player since Pierre Turgeon had points in 13 consecutive dates in 1994-95. The captain has 10 points in 15 games against the Devils. Only Mike Matheson (20 points in 31 games) and Brendan Gallagher (13 points in 30 duels) are more productive than he is against the New Jersey outfit. Meanwhile, Cole Caufield has nine points in just 10 games against the hosts.
Ondrej Palat is the Devils’ most productive player against the Habs with 23 points in 35 games. Douggie Hamilton has 21 in 31 games, and Jesper Bratt wraps up the top three with 20 points in as many games. Jack Hughes may not have cracked the 20-point mark against the Habs, but he does have 19 points in just 12 games, making him a significant threat. The center leads the league in goals with 10, along with four other players, including Caufield.
Tonight’s hosts have a 9-4-0 record for 18 points, which is good enough for fourth place in the league, just one point behind the Canadiens. Both teams have lost their last game and will want to bounce back. The game is scheduled for 7:00 PM and will be shown on TSN 2 in English and RDS in French.
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