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The New Jersey Devils played some of their best hockey of the season during their four-game road trip and were rewarded with seven of a possible eight points in the standings.
Tonight the Devils will look to keep their foot on the gas and continue their slow rise up the standings when they play host to the Montreal Canadiens.
The Habs have had a fantastic season to date, as evident by their 27-13-6 record, but they have hit a bit of a rough spell going 5-4-1 in the last 10 games.
Surprisingly, it hasn't been injuries hurting them of late but rather the play of Carey Price and Al Montoya.
Price has allowed 24 goals in seven games since the turn of the calendar, including 20 in his last five, while Montoya has allowed seven goals in the two starts he's made in 2017.
The latter will get the start tonight but it doesn't much matter who is between the pipes with the way both have struggled of late.
If Montreal's goaltending woes continue, the Devils may just have a shot at taking out the Atlantic Division leaders and, with some help, climbing within one point of a playoff spot.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
**Cory Schneider is ill, may sit out first of a back-to-back
Taylor Hall - Adam Henrique - P.A. Parenteau
Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Jacob Josefson - Pavel Zacha - Beau Bennett
Miles Wood - Blake Coleman - Devante Smith-Pelly
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Ben Lovejoy
Karl Stollery - Steve Santini
Keith Kinkaid**
And the expected lines for the Canadiens (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Max Pacioretty - Philip Danault - Alexander Radulov
Artturi Lekhonen - Tomas Plekanec - Paul Byron
Sven Andrighetto - Alex Galchenyuk - Andrew Shaw
Jacob De La Rose - Torrey Mitchell - Brian Flynn
Alexei Emelin - Shea Weber
Nathan Beaulieu - Jeff Petry
Mark Barberio - Zach Redmond
Carey Price
A few notes:
1) Palmieri has had a tough year, at least compared to last season, but has seemingly turned a corner of late tallying five points and 15 shots in his last five games. The Devils need consistent production from him down the stretch if they're seriously going to contend for a playoff spot.
2) The Josefson - Zacha - Bennett line has really controlled play since being put together. They don't have much to show for it in terms of production, but if they continue to play like they have the points will come.
3) Montreal doesn't generate many chances on the power play, but they sure have no problem taking advantage of the ones they do get (they're converting on just under 22% of their PPs). With the likes of Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk and Shea Weber teeing off on shots it's not hard to see why. New Jersey needs to be disciplined.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:30 eastern and can be seen on MSG+, SNE and RDS.
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