The New Jersey Devils will face the Montréal Canadiens this Thursday, at the Prudential Center. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. EST. The Devils are currently 8-5-2 in the league and are third in the Metropolitan Division. The Montreal Canadiens are eighth in the Atlantic Division and stand with a record of 4-7-2.
In the 2023-2024 season, the New Jersey Devils record was 38-39-5 after 82 consecutive games. Last year, the top leading scorer was Timo Meier, he scored 28 goals for the New Jersey Devils and made 24 assists. Totaling an amount of 52 points. Jesper Bratt tied with Captain Nico Hischier, and Alternate Captain, Jack Hughes for 27 goals of the season. Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes, Dawson Mercer, Alexander Holtz, and Kevin Bahl were the only New Jersey Devils to play all 82 games.
For the Canadiens in the 2023-2024 season, Nick Suzuki was the top leading scorer. He scored 33 goals and had 44 assists on other goals, totaling 77 points for the year.
The New Jersey Devils played the Montréal Canadiens five times last year. Which, the Devils won three out of those five games against the Canadiens.
This year, the Canadiens have lost their last four games, while the Devils have three wins and one loss from their last four games. The Devils have been playing significantly better than the Canadiens.
The New Jersey Devils goalie, Jake Allen had an impressive previous game against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday Nov. 4. Jake Allen made 31 saves, giving the Devils a shutout victory against Edmonton at 3-0. For 15 games into the season, this is also Allen’s second shutout — just days apart from his first one in Canada. His last shut out was 6-0 against the Vancouver Canucks. The New Jersey Devils goal percentage rests at .904 for Jake Allen and .907 for Jacob Markstrom. Jake Allen has played five games just into the 2024-2025 season with the Devils and has made 123 saves. Compared to Jacob Markstrom who has played 10 games and made 253 saves.
The Canadiens do not have the best goal-save percentage compared with the New Jersey Devils. It is not a significant difference, but they do lack the strength compared to the Devils. The Canadiens goalies have a .897 save percentage with goalie, Sam Montembeault and a .861 save percentage with Cayden Primeau. This season, Sam Montembeault has had a total of 218 saves just within the nine games he has played. Cayden Primeau has played six games and has only saved 149 goals.
Jacob Markstrom and Sam Montembeault have played a close number of games and only have 35 saves apart from each other.
Besides players Nikita Kucherov (TB), Sam Reinhart (FLA) and William Nylander (TOR) who are all tied for goals. From this preview, The New Jersey Devils, Nico Hischier and Montréal Canadiens, Cole Caulfield are also tied for goals alongside them. They are all tied for 10 goals this season and hopefully Hischier and Caulfield will determine who takes the lead this Thursday.
