The Montreal Canadiens started last season carrying three goaltenders on their roster and an overabundance of blueliners. The situation wasn't ideal and GM Kent Hughes spent the better part of the year trying to trade Jake Allen, but the veteran netminder blocked a trade to the New Jersey Devils, before agreeing to the trade at the deadline, ending his four-year association with the Tricolore.
So far this season, Allen has started five games acting as backup to Jakob Markstrom and he has done well. He has won three of his starts, including two by shutouts, but in the two losses he had save percentages of .867 and .784. He has not been confirmed as today's starter yet, but he certainly would like to be involved, playing your first regular season game against your former team is always a big deal.
However, Allen's record against the Canadiens is not as good as Markstrom. The former has played eight games against Montreal to earn a 3-5-0 record with a 3.29 GAA and a .882 SP. As for the later, he's taken on the Habs 19 times and has a 8-8-3 record, a 2.17 GAA and a .927 SP. So far this season, Allen has not started two games in a row and he was on duty for the Devils' last game.
Jonathan Kovacevic is another former Hab who now lines up with the New Jersey outfit. Hughes sent him to Jersey this Summer in return for a fourth-round pick at the 2026 draft and chances are, he did it hoping Logan Mailloux would be ready to step into his skates, which is not the case just yet.
With his new team, Kovacevic is playing on the second pairing and he has gathered six points (a goal and five assists) in 15 games on top of being assessed 13 minutes of penalty and keeping a plus-seven rating. His performance has had some Canadiens' fans criticizing the trade made by Hughes, but it made sense to make room for Mailloux and David Reinbacher.
Tomas Tatar also plays for the Devils now, but he plays a limited role on their fourth line. So far this year, he's gathered five points in his team's 15 games. The days when he was on the Canadiens' first line alongside Brendan Gallagher and Philip Danault.
The new and improved Devils won't be an easy prey for the struggling Canadiens, they are currently sixth in the league and second in the Metropolitan division with 18 points (the same total as the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Rod Brind'Amour led team has got four games in hand). They have a 4-4-2 record in their last 10 games and won their last one 3-0 over the Edmonton Oilers.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens find themselves in 29th place in the league and have lost their last four games, allowing 20 goals in the process while only netting eight goals themselves. Samuel Montembeault who played a good game against the Flames on Tuesday will be back in net in New Jersey.
Yesterday, the Canadiens announced they had loaned Oliver Kapanen to Timra IK in the SHL where the young Finn will be able to keep developing while having opportunities he wasn't getting in Montreal. As a result, left winger Lucas Condotta was recalled from the Laval Rocket.
Prior to practice, the Canadiens' young blueliners Lane Hutson, Jayden Struble, Arber Xhekaj, Kaiden Guhle and Justin Barron worked with director of development Adam Nicholas, before doing some drills afterwards with David Savard and Mike Matheson joining them. Speaking of the alternate captain, he's the Canadiens' top point producer against New Jersey, he has 20 points in 28 games. There are only two other Habs who've hit the double digits against the Devils; Gallagher with 12 points (but he needed 27 games to gather them) and Joel Armia with 10 points (in a more reasonable 15 games).
As for the forwards, they took part in various drills, including some shooting ones. Rafael Harvey-Pinard practiced with the group, but he wore a no-contact jersey. Martin St-Louis has already confirmed that Montembeault will be in net tonight, which isn't surprising. The netminder has taken on the Devils four times and has a 3-0-1 record, with a 2.21 GAA and a .931 SP, much better than Primeau's two losses, 5.60 GAA and a .836 SP.
The Canadiens will want to keep a close eye on their hosts young players, Jack Hughes has 13 points in nine games and Nico Hischier has 15 points in 17 points. The latter is part of the five-way tie at the top of the league's goal scorer ranking with Cole Caufield, Nikita Kucherov, Sam Reinhart and William Nylander who recently entered the conversation.
Montreal will be taking on New Jersey for the 170th time and their record is not great at 81-70-10-8. The hosts have won six of the last 10 meetings between the two sides, including the last one 4-3 in February.
On the milestone watch, Gallagher will play his 766th game with the Canadiens tonight, joining Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion in 25th place. The alternate captain is really climbing the ladder in the Habs' history book this season. He also needs two more goals to tie Stephane Richer's production with 225 goals in 19th place.
Tonight's tilt is the first of a series of four on the road for St-Louis' men and they'll be heading to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
