Both the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens were in action last night. Tonight, they meet for their first and only match-up of the preseason as both look to bounce back off losses in the last 24 hours.
The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (1-0-1) at the Montreal Canadiens (0-2-0; SBN Blog: Eyes On The Prize)
The Time: 7:00 PM EST
The Broadcast: No Ken Daneyko or Steve Cangialosi for this one, and no word on the radio broadcast either. In Canada the game can be watched on TSN2 or RDS.
New York Sour: The Devils took ten(!) penalties last night at MSG, including the last four, enabling Filip Chytil and OHR to skate off victoriously after Chytil buried the game-winner with 3.5 ticks left on the clock in OT. Of those ten(!) penalties only one was a pesky, flow-of-the-game-shattering faceoff violation. The lack of discipline should look to clear itself up as the less NHL-ready of this Devils bunch are weeded out and the regulars get some more shifts under their belts. Corey Schneider played his first 31:16 of the season, saving 14 of 17 shots-on-goal and 10 of 11 in the first period. Pavel Zacha, Brian Gibbons, and Jimmy Hayes scored for New Jersey, while the Rangers had contributions in the box score from Kevin Hayes, Chris Kreider, David Desharnais, and the aforementioned Chytil. Especially of note for New Jersey was the line of Pavel Zacha (Who scored this nifty goal to tie it at 1), Drew Stafford, and Brian Gibbons, who combined for 4 points and were praised by Coach Hynes in his post-game media conference.
Et Le But?: Montreal hosted Washington last night at Bell Centre with a lineup full of regulars making their season debuts. So how’d it go? Montreal put 43 shots on net and scored only twice, going 2-for-9 on the powerplay. That’s how it went. Charles Hudon and Max Pacioretty were the scorers for the home team, while Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jakub Vrana, Devante Smith-Pelly, and Tom Wilson each buried opportunities for the visiting Capitals. For full coverage of this one, here’s NHL.com’s recap.
Tale Of The Tape: Neither team has released any potential lineups as of 12:30 AM on the East coast. I’d expect Devils lines and pairings which closely resemble those used in the Capitals game from Monday night.
Here is what you can expect Monday night in Newark between the #NJDevils and #Capitals. Both lineups are out: pic.twitter.com/fasGY9qzJO
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) September 17, 2017
As for the Canadiens’ roster, I’d guess the Habs roll with this lineup tonight:
La formation de ce soir à Québec c. Boston. / Tonight's lineup vs. Boston in Quebec City. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/nEHhWkfnsj
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 18, 2017
What To Watch For: Given they both play, it’s hard for me to envision this game without a good, clean scrap from Andrew Shaw and Dalton Prout. I’m also interested/excited to see Nico Hischier’s return to action after what was a successful debut against Washington. Chris Fieldhouse mentioned in both his AATJ game previews that he was surprised to see Damon Severson in the lineup over Steve Santini. I second that thought, and hope to see Santini out there tonight in Montreal.
The Goal: More of the same. Build conditioning, adjust to game speed, shake off the rust, see who belongs and who doesn’t. That’s all I can ask for from the Devils in tonight’s festivities.
Your Thoughts: What did I miss? Any talking points you think should’ve been discussed? Go nuts in the comments.