Canadiens vs. Devils: Game thread, rosters, lines, and how to watch

Montreal Canadiens vs. New Jersey Devils

How to watch

Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Devils region: MSGSN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS Direct, TSN+

The last time the Canadiens and Devils met, I had mentioned how well Vitek Vanecek was playing at the time, stabilizing the one position in most need of an overhaul from the previous year. Surrendering four of the goals in a 5-2 loss to Montreal that night began a spiral of poor results for the netminder, who hasn’t seen a save percentage above .864 since.

As the Habs face the Devils for the third and final time this season, it’s Akira Schmid who has begun to take over in the crease, allowing a total of five goals in three starts since then, most recently a win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. The Devils won’t be happy still not having their goaltending solidified with a few weeks to go until the playoffs, but they just need one of these players to be hot when the games really matter.

Schmid’s solid run will go up against Alex Belzile’s tonight as the Canadiens’ 31-year-old call-up is seeking a four-game goal-scoring streak. At this point we can fairly confidently say he and his teammates are going to give the Devils a proper test of their post-season readiness, and Montreal is actually looking for a season series win versus the team with 90 points on the year.

Montreal Canadiens projected lineup

Scratched:
Injured/Ill: Joel Armia, Justin Barron, Paul Byron, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Jordan Harris, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovský, Arber Xhekaj

New Jersey Devils projected lineup