{"id":540760,"date":"2026-04-04T19:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540760\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T19:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:01:28","slug":"dobes-likely-caufield-nears-50-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540760\/","title":{"rendered":"Dobes Likely, Caufield Nears 50 Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> (44-21-10) will face the New Jersey Devils (39-34-2) on Saturday night, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET.<\/p>\n

It will the first of back-to-back games versus the Devils, with the first game taking place in Newark, and the second leg scheduled for the Bell Centre on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens can\u2019t officially qualify for the playoffs by beating the Devils on Saturday, but given that they\u2019re embroiled in a tightly-contested race for first place in the Atlantic Division, a pair of wins would go a long way in ensuring home-ice advantage in the first round.<\/p>\n

But first, the task at hand.<\/p>\n

The Devils are in the midst of an underwhelming season, but they\u2019ve managed to win seven of their last 10 games, and they tend to give the Canadiens fits when the teams meet. In other words, the Habs cannot afford to take them lightly if they wish to improve their playoff odds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting the Canadiens have won seven-straight games, a season high. It\u2019s the type of streak that fills most players with an abundance of confidence, however, it can also give a young roster the impression they\u2019re unbeatable.<\/p>\n

Seeing as the Canadiens and Devils will play twice within 24 hours, the late-season meetings can serve as a sort of preparation for the playoffs, where hitting the ground running is crucial to winning a seven-game series. <\/p>\n

Lineup Changes<\/p>\n

Head coach Martin St-Louis continues to hold his cards close to his chest, which means any significant lineup change will be cleared up once the teams take to the ice for the pregame warm-up.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we expect to see Jakub Dobes guard the net for the Habs. He will be looking to win a fifth game in a row, while also maintaining a save percentage above .900. <\/p>\n

Dobes, along with Jacob Fowler, has been Montreal\u2019s most important player throughout the seven-game winning streak. That may seem counterintuitive, especially since Cole Caufield is quickly approaching the 50-goal mark, and captain Nick Suzuki has a legitimate chance to hit 100 points, but the fact remains that Fowler and Dobes\u2019 .956 save percentage at 5v5 is the driving force behind Montreal\u2019s extended winning streak.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Cole Caufield<\/a> \u2013 Nick Suzuki<\/a> \u2013 Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Newhook \u2013 Oliver Kapanen \u2013 Ivan Demidov<\/a><\/p>\n

Zach Bolduc \u2013 Jake Evans \u2013 Josh Anderson<\/p>\n

Joe Veleno \u2013 Phillip Danault \u2013 Brendan Gallagher<\/p>\n

Mike Matheson \u2013 Noah Dobson<\/p>\n

Jayden Struble- Lane Hutson<\/p>\n

Kaiden Guhle \u2013 Arber Xhekaj<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/p>\n

New Jersey Devils Projected Lineup<\/p>\n

Timo Meier \u2013\u00a0Nico Hischier\u00a0\u2013 Dawson Mercer<\/p>\n

Jesper Bratt \u2013\u00a0Jack Hughes\u00a0\u2013 Connor Brown<\/p>\n

Lenni Hameenaho \u2013 Cody Glass \u2013 Nick Bjugstad<\/p>\n

Evgenii Dadonov \u2013 Paul Cotter \u2013 Maxim Tsyplakov<\/p>\n

Jonas Siegenthaler \u2013 Dougie Hamilton<\/p>\n

Luke Hughes \u2013 Jonathan Kovacevic<\/p>\n

Brenden Dillon \u2013 Simon Nemec<\/p>\n

Jake Allen<\/p>\n

How To Watch The Habs Vs. The Devils<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens versus the New Jersey Devils, Saturday, April 4, 2026, will be aired<\/a> on Sportsnet East, CityTV, and TVA Sports. An instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Sportsnaut<\/a> as soon as the final whistle blows. <\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMarc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The … More about Marc Dumont<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens (44-21-10) will face the New Jersey Devils (39-34-2) on Saturday night, with the puck drop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-540760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116347987681371258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}