Devils at Canadiens
Fan favorite Brendan Gallagher will play on home ice for the first time in more than six weeks when the Montreal Canadiens host the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday. The sparkplug forward, who missed 17 games with a hand injury, recorded two goals and an assist on the road as the Canadiens split a pair of games since his return.
Montreal could not follow up a dominant performance against Boston in the Winter Classic, managing just 24 shots in a 4-3 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday. The Devils were blanked 1-0 by Detroit on Monday to end their three-game winning streak and are expected to be without leading scorer Mike Cammalleri (upper body) for the third straight contest. New Jersey should have Cory Schneider in net as he has surrendered just three goals in his last three games and is 1-0-2 lifetime against the Canadiens, including a 3-2 overtime triumph in Montreal on Nov. 28. The Devils lost in a shootout to the Canadiens one day earlier.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG Plus (New Jersey), Sportsnet, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (20-15-5): Cammalleri has recorded 35 points and offseason acquisition Kyle Palmieri has notched 30 while leading the team with 17 goals – four in his last six contests. New Jersey also is getting solid production from Lee Stempniak, who has registered 28 points, and Adam Henrique has collected 27 but has gone 11 games without a goal. Damon Severson is the top offensive contributor on the blue line (11 points) and fellow defenseman Adam Larsson (plus-5 rating) continues to show progress.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (22-16-3): Montreal has won only 13 of its 32 games since its 9-0-0 start, but one good sign is that the offense has produced 12 goals while splitting the last four contests. The return of Gallagher (11 points) will help, Alex Galchenyuk has posted three goals and three assists in his last seven contests and captain Max Pacioretty leads the team in tallies (16) and points (32). Mike Condon is expected to go for his third straight win after Ben Scrivens played Tuesday.
OVERTIME
1. New Jersey C Travis Zajac has gone 20 games without a goal but has recorded three assists and a plus-3 rating in his last four contests.
2. Montreal rookie LW Daniel Carr has registered five goals in 14 games since being recalled for the first time in his career.
3. The Devils have successfully killed all 10 penalties in their last five games and the Canadiens are 1-for-15 on the power play over their last six contests.