The Matchup
New Jersey Devils (11-11-5) take a trip north to visit the Montreal Canadiens (15-9-3). This is the first of the home and home which will conclude in NJ on Wednesday night. The Canadiens are coming off a win at home against the Leafs in a game where the Canadiens jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Toronto cut it to 4-2 by the end of 2. The Devils are coming off wins against the Hurricanes in Carolina and then at home against the Sabres, which ended up being a much tougher game than one could have predicted. In the last 10 games, the Devils are 6-4-0 while Montreal is 7-1-2.
Projected Lines for the Montreal Canadiens
Danny Briere – Tomas Plekanec – Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk – Lars Eller – Rene Bourque
Travis Moen – Brandon Prust – Michael Bournival
Andrei Markov – P.K. Subban
Alexei Emelin – Josh Gorges
Douglas Murray – Raphael Diaz
Cary Price
Projected Lines for the New Jersey Devils
Dainius Zubrus – Travis Zajac – Jaromir Jagr
Adam Henrique – Patrik Elias – Steve Bernier
Damien Brunner – Andrei Loktionov – Michael Ryder
Tim Sestito – Jacob Josefson – Cam Janssen
Andy Greene – Mark Fayne
Eric Gelinas – Jon Merrill
Anton Volchenkov – Marek Zidlicky
Martin Brodeur
Injury Notes
New Jersey placed defenseman Adam Larsson (lower body) on injured reserve Sunday. Forwards Ryan Carter (lacerations), Stephen Gionta (ankle) and Ryane Clowe (head) are all out, as well as defenseman Bryce Salvador (non-displaced foot fracture) … Montreal defenseman Davis Dewiske (shoulder surgery) is out until early April.
Random Thoughts For This Game
I for one will try and not get frustrated for this game. I do find the Devils play to be frustrating at times. They came out last Wednesday and stuck up the place before battling back and giving the ‘Canes a run. They came out Friday and looked great and followed that up with a 1-0 OT win against the shitty Sabres?? For me, the Devils are consistently inconsistent and that is super frustrating.
On the topic of not getting frustrated, let’s remember that the Canadiens are a fast little team. The skate fast, move the puck quickly and I am afraid the Devils are going to get caught being slow all night long so who knows how many scoring chances that will result in. Hopefully Brodeur is up to task!
Montreal is a great PP team so the Devils will have to be disciplined tonight. Montreal ranks #3 in the league on converting PP chances and even though the Devils have the #2 rank PK unit in the league, giving any team too many PP chances is something you want avoid, especially a top 3 PP unit.
Lots has been made about Brunner’s lack of scoring but let us not forget that Michael Ryder is also not putting pucks in the net. Hopefully a night against his old team will cure his issues. Devils play Detroit on Friday so maybe Brunner can snap his goal drought against his old team if he hasn’t done so against the Canadiens.
Gelinas will be playing in Montreal for the first time in his career tonight. He’s quickly becoming a favorite out there and hopefully with friends and family at the rink tonight, he has his best game yet!!
NHL 14 Simulation Results:
Jagr scores at the end of the 1st and the Devils hang on to a 1-0 lead until midway through the third where Daniel Briere puts home the tying goal. There would be no more scoring and Montreal wins 2-1 in the skills competition.
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