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The New Jersey Devils play host to the Montreal Canadiens tonight in what will be their final game before Wednesday's trade deadline.
The two players most likely to be dealt, P.A. Parenteau and Kyle Quincey, are behind held out due to precautionary reasons.
While this means there is not one last audition for those two to showcase themselves -- recency bias is a hell of a drug -- teams know what they're going to get without seeing them one last time.
Parenteau is generally good for 15-20 goals, ~40 points, and he'll help drive play while offering the ability to play either wing if necessary. Missing this game doesn't change that.
With Quincey, teams would be getting a veteran defenseman who can hold his own at 5v5, plays with an edge, and will chip in a point or two when he can.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Beau Bennett - Adam Henrique - Mike Cammalleri
Miles Wood - Jacob Josefson - Stefan Noesen
Blake Coleman - Joseph Blandisi - Devante Smith-Pelly
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy
John Moore - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Canadiens (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Max Pacioretty - Phillip Danault - Alexander Radulov
Artturi Lekhonen - Alex Galchenyuk - Brendan Gallagher
Paul Byron - Tomas Plekanec - Andrew Shaw
Sven Andrighetto - David Desharnais - Torrey Mitchell
Andrei Markov - Shea Weber
Alexei Emelin - Jeff Petry
Nathan Beaulieu - Nikita Nesterov
Al Montoya
A few notes:
1) In 200 minutes together, the Hall - Zajac - Palmieri line has controlled ~54% of the shot attempts and posted a plus-6 goal differential. They've been consistent threats and will give Montreal's defense all they can handle.
2) The Devils have struggled with offensively gifted defensemen of late. Brent Burns killed them, Erik Karlsson scored the game-winning-goal in the Ottawa game, and the emerging Brady Skjei found the scoresheet last time out. Will this trend continue against Shea Weber?
3) The Canadiens are the better team at 5v5. They are also undisciplined, sitting 28th in total times shorthanded. The Devils need to take advantage of their power play opportunities because, Hall line aside, they may not create much at full-strength.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on MSG+, SNE, and RDS.
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