The Montreal Canadiens are aware that they no longer can sneak up on their opponents.
Earning 13 wins in a 17-game stretch has a tendency to sound the alarm to your potential foes.
The Canadiens will look to answer the bell after a recent setback when they host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.
“Teams are coming ready to play against us now,” Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle said. “It’s not a secret that we’re hot — we’re playing really well — and I think we’ve got to be ready for teams not to take us lightly anymore.”
Kirby Dach collected a goal and an assist, Guhle also scored and Sam Montembeault made 41 saves in the Canadiens’ 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson saw his nine-game point streak (one goal, 12 assists) come to a halt.
Montreal did itself no favors by surrendering the first three goals of the game.
“They did to us what we’ve done to a lot of other teams,” Dach said. “They made it hard to break out of our zone and we didn’t do enough on the forecheck to make life uncomfortable for them.”
Dach added, “We kind of put ourselves behind the eight ball. I think as a group we’ve grown and matured enough to the point where we can turn the page on this, take the lessons that we need to learn and move on to Saturday’s game.”
The Canadiens also came out flat in the previous encounter versus the Devils. New Jersey scored twice in the first period en route to a 5-3 victory on Nov. 7.
Jesper Bratt (two goals, one assist) and Jack Hughes (one goal, two assists) each notched three-point performances in that game for the Devils.
Captain Nico Hischier (one goal, two assists) also recorded a three-point effort as New Jersey snapped a four-game losing skid with a 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
Dawson Mercer scored twice in the second period to change the momentum of the game. He joined linemates Timo Meier and Justin Dowling in combining for five points (two goals, three assists) on seven shots on goal.
“That line was tremendous,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “They had a lot of great shifts. I thought Meier and Mercer both had their best game in a long time. It was important for me to try to boost the third group. Having Timo there was a big part of it.”
Jake Allen likely will be back in net with fellow goaltender Jacob Markstrom sustaining a lower-body injury after Bruins forward Justin Brazeau collided with him in his crease. Goaltender Isaac Poulter was recalled from AHL affiliate Utica.
“We’ll take some time before we have a full extent on (Markstrom) but I talked to him and he was in good spirits,” Keefe said. “He commented to me that he’s feeling a lot better now than he was before so that’s positive news.”
Markstrom is expected to be sidelined 4-6 weeks with an MCL sprain, thus putting the Swede’s participation in jeopardy for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
–Field Level Media
