Game 49: Montreal Canadiens vs. New Jersey Devils
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: CityTV, Sportsnet East (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: NHL Network
In the Devils region: MSGSN2
Streaming: Sportsnet+
With Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher questionable for tonight’s game, the Montreal Canadiens have called up Rafaël Harvey-Pinard for game #49 of the season. RHP had been playing in Laval since clearing waivers on December 1, back on the NHL roster for the first time in two months. The recall is probably just temporary as the team waits for Emil Heineman to recover from a minor wrist injury.
Jakub Dobes has been tagged for the second home start of his young career and first on a Saturday night. As he admitted himself, he wasn’t at his usual standard in the last game played on Sunday versus the New York Rangers, but still got the win and made some great saves in overtime to allow the team to take the extra point and keep his record perfect.
Montreal will need their goalie to be solid versus the Devils, but it’s more important for them to get back to their suffocating defensive play that Dobes experienced in his first few games in the NHL. The Habs have begun to chase the puck more often recently, looking more like the team we saw in the opening month of the season that struggled to gain possession. The Devils haven’t been a dangerous offensive team lately, but they are more than capable of taking advantage of open lanes if the Habs once again are slow to shut them down.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| #13 Cole Caufield |
#14 Nick Suzuki |
#20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #92 Patrik Laine |
#77 Kirby Dach |
#35 Alex Newhook |
| #17 Josh Anderson |
#71 Jake Evans |
#40 Joel Armia |
| #55 Michael Pezzetta |
#28 Christian Dvorak |
#11 Brendan Gallagher |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| #48 Lane Hutson |
#8 Mike Matheson |
| #21 Kaiden Guhle |
#45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #72 Arber Xhekaj |
#58 David Savard |
| Starter |
Backup |
| #75 Jakub Dobeṧ |
#35 Samuel Montembeault |
Scatched: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard
Conditioning loan: Jayden Struble
Injured: Emil Heineman
New Jersey Devils projected lineup
| Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
| Ondrej Palat |
Jack Hughes |
Paul Cotter |
| Stefan Noesen |
Nico Hischier |
Jesper Bratt |
| Timo Meier |
Justin Dowling |
Dawson Mercer |
| Tomas Tatar |
Curtis Lazar |
Nathan Bastian |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Brenden Dillon |
Dougie Hamilton |
| Jonas Siegenthaler |
Johnny Kovacevic |
| Luke Hughes |
Brett Pesce |
| Starter |
Backup |
| Jake Allen |
Isaac Poulter |
