Struggling New Jersey Devils travel to Montreal to take on the Canadiens
Aside from a 1-0 shutout of the Buffalo Sabres on 13 October, the New Jersey Devils have been unable to keep the puck out of their own net. Only the Anaheim Ducks have given up more goals so far this season
and Devils goalie, Martin Brodeur, who has had 40-plus win seasons 8 times in his career, has only one win so far this year. Brodeur will have a chance on Thursday 21 October to get his second win when he travels to his home town to take on the Montreal Canadiens
- a team he's had tremendous success against in the past.
Recent meetings
The New Jersey Devils won three out of the four games they played against the Canadiens last season including a 4-2 victory in the two team's last meeting at the Bell Centre on 27 March.
How they match up
Once upon a time you would never bet against Martin Brodeur's ability to steal a game for the Devils, but he has been shaky all year with a 3.18 goals against average and a save percentage under .900.
Carey Price, on the other hand, has begun to silence his critics and has put in a series of solid performances for the Canadiens.
Unfortunately for the Devils they've also lacked potency up front and are a league worst in goals scored per game (1.7). Team leader Ilya Kovalchuk has five points in six games while top line forwards
Zach Parise and Travis Zajac each only have one goal on the season.
The Canadiens never know where their scoring punch is going to come from, but someone has managed to step up just about every night. In their most recent come-from-behind win over the Ottawa Senators it
was the scoring tandem of Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn. Before that it was Mike Cammalleri, who was held off the score sheet against Ottawa, but had recorded points in each of his three previous games.
The Montreal blue line has also been solid so far this year, even in the absence of veteran Andrei Markov, who is still not ready to return despite having been practicing with the team in recent weeks.
Markov's absence has paved the way for Josh Gorges who has benefited from the increased ice time and has the team's only power play goal so far this season.
It's the power play which has been Montreal's downfall thus far as they are currently ranked 30th in the league with the man advantage.
What to expect
Brodeur has always seemed to step up his game when facing the Montreal Canadiens. He not only scored one of his two career goals against the Canadiens in a 1997 play-off game, and the Bell Centre in Montreal
was even the site where Brodeur recorded his 551st win to tie former Canadien Patrick Roy for number one all-time.
However, the 38-year-old is in the twilight of his career and it's just about time to pass the torch. He's still a winner but is not in the kind of shape any team should be building their team around like
the Devils used to.
Prediction: Montreal win 3-2.
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