Game 76: Montreal Canadiens @ New Jersey Devils

Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVS Sports (French)
In the Devils region: MSG
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+

The hope was that maybe the Montreal Canadiens would win three games on their last long road trip of the season to help hold their place in the standings. They were due to face some top-ranked teams and others that have had Montreal’s number recently, making for a difficult schedule. As they get ready to play the fifth and final game since leaving the Bell Centre on March 26, they’re looking for a sweep on the trip, eyeing an eighth consecutive regulation win to increase their season point total to 100. That would make clinching a playoff berth just a formality, something they accomplished with 91 points a season ago.

The New Jersey Devils also finished with 91 points in 2024-25, good enough to hold the third seed in the Eastern Conference. This year, 91 points will be nowhere near good enough to claim a playoff spot in a section that has seen significant improvement; the bottom five teams in the East last year all have a chance to play beyond an 82nd game. Those improvements have come at the expense of some of the teams that made it a year ago, and while the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs have seen the biggest drops, the Devils will also be one of the teams that won’t return to the play for the Stanley Cup.

The biggest difference for the Devils has been their results from intradivisional matchups. They went 14-9-3 versus their Metropolitan counterparts last year, but are 7-15-2 in those games with the two Pennsylvania teams still to face one more time. They have fewer wins versus the Metro than every club in the Atlantic, that all play fewer matches against that group.

New Jersey has been good versus the Atlantic with a 10-9-0 mark, and that includes a win on November 6 that ended Montreal’s run of five consecutive victories in games that went to overtime to begin the season. The Habs haven’t managed to beat the Devils in the past two years, and have just four wins dating back to the start of the 2018 calendar year.

Tale of the Tape

Canadiens
Statistics
Devils

44-21-10
Record
39-34-2

48.6% (23rd)
Expected-goal share
49.8% (19th)

3.51 (3rd)
Goals per game
2.77 (27th)

3.08 (21st)
Goals against per game
3.07 (16th)

24.4% (5th)
PP%
22.8% (10th)

77.3% (25th)
PK%
79.1% (15th)

0-0-1
Head-to-Head Record
1-0-0

Cole Caufield (49)
Most goals
Nico Hischier (26)

Nick Suzuki (67)
Most assists
Jesper Bratt (46)

Nick Suzuki (94)
Most points
Jack Hughes (68)

Multiple injuries to Jack Hughes proved too much for the Devils to overcome. He missed almost six weeks from mid-November to just before the Christmas break, and New Jersey went 8-10 in that time, with their first five-game losing streak of the season. Their second run of five consecutive defeats started the game after he played just 2:29 versus the Nashville Predators before leaving with a lower-body injury a few days before the Olympics, continuing for two more matches after the Golden Goal-scorer re-entered the lineup upon returning from Milan.

Injuries have become a concern for their franchise player, as Hughes has never played a full season and is going to complete a third consecutive campaign playing 64 games or fewer. Despite his limited playing time he still leads the team in points with 68 in 54 matches, but the team has a tough time surviving without him.

He’s enjoyed a healthy run since the Olympics, and the Devils have been better in the past month than their overall record. Even counting those first two losses when the NHL schedule resumed, they’re 11-7-0 in the past 18 games. Hughes’s return has freed up Nico Hischier to be a point-per-game player following his time with Team Switzerland, and has helped linemate Jesper Bratt add 25 points to what was a total of 41 with two-thirds of the season played. Even Connor Brown, a familiar name from the Edmonton Oilers’ back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Final, has 17 points while playing on Hughes’s line, almost doubling his season total.

Hughes has proven tough for the Canadiens to contain, with 21 points in 13 career games. Bratt has been perhaps even tougher on the Habs as he tends to be the one scoring the goals, entering this game with a five-game scoring streak versus Montreal and 10 goals in the last 14 meetings.

Cole Caufield, one of the top goal-scorers in the league, has only managed to score three times versus New Jersey in 11 career contests. The Canadiens are as prepared as possible to flip the script on this head-to-head battle with the defence and goaltending keeping some potent offences quiet and Caufield scoring on an almost nightly basis since January 15, entering tonight with at least a goal in each game of the road trip. If he can hit the net again tonight, he will have 50 goals on the season, and the Canadiens will be in a great position to wrap up a perfect road trip with an eighth consecutive victory.