Game 77: Montreal Canadiens vs. New Jersey Devils
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French)
In the Devils region: MSGSN
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
It wasn’t the way the Montreal Canadiens wanted to do it after getting out to a 3-0 lead last night in New Jersey, but they recovered from allowing three consecutive goals to win the game in a shootout, running their record to a perfect 5-0-0 on the road trip. It was just Montreal’s third shootout win in eight tries, but that extra point was a big one, vaulting them over the Buffalo Sabres to, at least temporarily, hold second place in the Atlantic Division.
Today the Canadiens have returned home to do it all over again, joined by the Devils to complete the home-and-home set that concludes the season series. Each team has win from games that have gone past 60 minutes, so today’s match will decide the winner of the three-game set.
That’s about all the Devils have to play for, while the Habs have something else in mind: clinching a playoff spot, and then aiming even higher. Their win last night set up a situation of needing just one point, a 101st of the season, to get the “X” inscribed by their name to denote a second consecutive post-season appearance. It’s a bit of an anomaly that they sit above a team in the standings that has already clinched, but it comes down to the number of regulation wins, something Montreal doesn’t have the edge in versus many teams, largely due to games just like last night’s when leads were lost before the final horn sounded.
Montreal had issues last year when they needed one final result to punch their ticket, needing just one win in their last four games, and only claiming it on the final day. Surely it won’t take as long for either them to claim one point or one of the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings to drop one, but ideally they take care of business immediately and focus on getting some players a bit of rest before the post-season begins in about two weeks’ time.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Devils |
|---|---|---|
| 45-21-10 | Record | 39-34-3 |
| 48.6% (23rd) | Expected-goal share | 49.7% (19th) |
| 3.50 (5th) | Goals per game | 2.78 (27th) |
| 3.08 (19th) | Goals against per game | 3.07 (18th) |
| 24.3% (8th) | PP% | 22.7% (10th) |
| 77.4% (24th) | PK% | 79.1% (15th) |
| 1-0-1 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-0-1 |
| Cole Caufield (49) | Most goals | Nico Hischier (26) |
| Nick Suzuki (68) | Most assists | Jesper Bratt (46) |
| Nick Suzuki (95) | Most points | Jack Hughes (70) |
A similar scenario to last season’s attempt to secure a playoff berth played out last night with Cole Caufield one goal away from 50. Montreal got away from the usual supported offensive play trying to force the puck to the man chasing history, and ended up chasing the play instead after turnovers, the worst of which came on a power play that turned the chance to go up 4-1 into a 3-2 score.
You can understand after last night’s showing why Martin St-Louis was trying to downplay the quest for a milestone earlier this week, envisioning that exact occurrence as the focus shifted from the team to one player. Caufield has scored many of his goals when other players are occupying the attention of defenders, but both teams were focused on #13 last night, and it almost cost the Habs an important point.
Scoring in 35 of the 75 games he’s played this year, Caufield is just about as likely to score in a game as not, so just playing the percentage should see him hit his milestone without needing to put extra effort into forcing it. He hasn’t gone a game since the Olympics without putting two pucks on net, and even last night when the Devils tried to shut him down he put five on Jake Allen.
With that said, it would be nicer to see him hit 50 goals on home ice anyway, and that will no doubt come to pass during the four-game homestand Montreal begins tonight. The ovation will be loud and long when he scores it, but even that won’t compare to the noise at the Bell Centre when the playoffs begin. That should be the goal everyone is striving for, putting in the proper effort to lock up their place.
