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NHL Gameday Preview: New Jersey Devils @ Montreal Canadiens - Game 28

December 2, 2013, 12:46 PM ET [172 Comments]
Todd Cordell
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Match-up - New Jersey Devils (11-11-5) @ Montreal Canadiens (15-9-3)
Road/Home records - 6-7-3 -------------- 8-5-2
TV - MSG Plus, TSN-Habs, RDS
Puck drop - 7:30 PM ET
Season series - 0-0
Last 10: Devils 6-4-0 / Canadiens 7-1-2
Projected starting goalies - Martin Brodeur vs Carey Price

Goals for/against per game

Montreal - 2.67/2.00
New Jersey - 2.18/2.22

Power play/Penalty Kill

Montreal - 24.0%/85.3%
New Jersey - 18.1%/87.6%

Projected lines for the Canadiens:

Danny Briere - Tomas Plekanec - Brian Gionta
Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk - Lars Eller - Rene Bourque
Travis Moen - Brandon Prust - Michael Bournival

Andrei Markov - P.K. Subban
Alexei Emelin - Josh Gorges
Douglas Murray - Raphael Diaz

Injuries: Davis Drewiske

Projected lines for the Devils:

Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr
Adam Henrique - Patrik Elias - Steve Bernier
Damien Brunner - Andrei Loktionov - Michael Ryder
Tim Sestito - Jacob Josefson - Cam Janssen

Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Eric Gelinas - Jon Merrill
Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky

Injuries: Ryane Clowe, Stephen Gionta, Bryce Salvador, Adam Larsson, Ryan Carter.

Some notes:

- The Canadiens are a very fast paced team. They have a lot of great skaters and they like to move the puck quickly. For the Devils to win they'll have to be on their toes, because if they get caught flat footed they'll allow a lot of scoring chances and will probably get into penalty trouble. They can't afford to do that against a Canadiens power play unit that's clicking at almost 25%.

- Murray can block shots and clear the net, but he is pretty much garbage at everything else. He's more or less an anchor pulling down the Canadiens as only 35% of the shot attempts taken when he's on the ice during 5 vs 5 are by the Canadiens. It'll be tough for DeBoer to get all the matchups he wants as the Habs have last change, but if he can consistently get one of their top-3 lines out against Murray they should be able to generate a fair amount of chances, and perhaps a goal or two.

- The Canadiens have a pretty balanced lineup, but if I'm DeBoer I'm playing either the Zajac line or Greene's pairing against Pacioretty's line all night. Pacioretty had been struggling for much of the season, but he's been red hot of late scoring seven times over his last six games. If the Devils give him time and space with the puck, he'll make them pay.

- Brodeur will be making one of his last starts in Montreal tonight and the first one at the Bell Centre since his father passed away. I'm sure it'll be a very emotional game for him and one he'd like to win, so the Devils need to make sure they help him out with some goal support.

- Gelinas will be playing in Montreal for the first time and will have several family members and friends at the game. He's been exceptional this season so the last thing he needs is another reason to make sure he's playing well.

- Ryder has done basically nothing since the first 10 games of the season, so perhaps a game against his former team will get him going. The Devils need something, anything, from him.

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