Devils at Canadiens
The return of star goaltender Carey Price woke the Montreal Canadiens out of their slumber and ignited a five-game winning streak, but that momentum has come to a halt in the wake of three consecutive losses -- all at Bell Centre. Montreal looks to snap out of its funk when it wraps up a five-game homestand against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
The Canadiens have had four days off since a 6-2 pummeling by Edmonton on Saturday and are heading out on a seven-game road trip following Thursday's game. “Right now, what I’m going to do is I’m going to look at the next five games before the Christmas break,” coach Claude Julien said. “I’m not going to go any further than that. Why should we look any further than that? Because if we don’t do the job there, we’ll already be in trouble." The Devils appeared to be in trouble after losing three of four entering a matchup against the league's hottest team, but they ended the Los Angeles Kings' eight-game winning streak with a 5-1 victory Tuesday. "We found our game," observed No. 1 overall draft pick Nico Hischier said. "We played 60 minutes and when we do we feel we can beat anyone in this league."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, MSG-Plus2 (New Jersey), RDS, TSN2 (Montreal)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (17-9-4): Taylor Hall scored twice in New Jersey's rout of Los Angeles, giving him five goals and five assists in the past 10 games and boosting his team-leading total to 31 points. However, he absorbed a knee-on-knee hit and will miss Thursday's game. "The real positive news is that there is no structural damage," Devils coach John Hynes said. "Bad news, he won't play at Montreal, but it's just a contusion." Forward Marcus Johansson, who suffered an ankle injury in Saturday's game, will not travel with the team.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (13-14-4): Defenseman Shea Weber returned to practice after taking Tuesday off while he continues to deal a lower-body injury that sidelined him for the final six games last month. "Nobody plays at 100 percent. Everyone deals with different sorts of pain and grinds away. You've just got to get your job done," Weber said. "I'm dealing with it day to day. Obviously, you want it to get better, but it's tough when you're skating every day." Rookie Daniel Carr saw some action with the power-play unit during Wednesday's practice.
OVERTIME
1. Price has won half his 22 starts versus New Jersey, posting an 11-10-1 record and 2.37 goals-against average.
2. The Devils have snuffed out 24 of 26 short-handed situations over the past eight games.
3. Carr has two goals and five assists during a five-game point streak since he was called up.