If the Montreal Canadiens often had trouble with teams that were trailing them in the standings, they also had issues with the New Jersey Devils last season. Jack Hughes and co. won all three of their duels against the Habs and in convincing fashion, outscoring Montreal 13-6 in the season series.

The teams met for the first time in November, and the Devils won 5-3 thanks to solid performances from Jesper Bratt and J. Hughes, who both put up three points. It took less than two minutes for New Jersey to score on Samuel Montembeault. By the end of the first, they were up 2-0. From then on, they never lost the lead, even though the Canadiens tried their best to catch up.

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In the second duel, history repeated itself with New Jersey taking another 2-0 lead in the second frame, but this time, the Canadiens fought back. By the end of regulation, the score was tied up at 3-3. Montreal couldn’t finish the job in overtime, however, and it was J. Hughes who scored with less than a minute left in the extra frame to allow the visitors to skate away with the two points.

New Jersey wasn’t done, however; they won the last meeting of the season 4-0 in a game where the Canadiens outshot them 34-22. Despite the Habs’ number of shots, Jake Allen was merciless and stopped everything his old team sent his way, while Samuel Montembeault just wasn’t up to the challenge, allowing four goals on just 22 shots for an .818 save percentage.

In the end, Montreal had a 0-2-1 record against Jersey and couldn’t stop J. Hughes and his sidekick, Bratt. The former had six points in the season series, and the latter had seven, with blueliner Dougie Hamilton rounding up the top three with four points. Whichever way you look at it, the Devils' best players bested the Canadiens’. Nick Suzuki had three points in the season series while Alex Newhook, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky all had two.

Allen also played a significant role in the Canadiens’ struggle. The former Hab netminder saved his best performances for his former team, winning both of his games, including a shutout, to finish the year with a .955 SV against the team that judged him surplus to requirements at the previous trade deadline.

The Devils finished the season with 91 points and qualified for the playoffs, despite losing J. Hughes to a shoulder injury and Hamilton to a lower-body injury in early March. New Jersey had an early exit from the spring dance, however, with a 4-1 series loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Management wasn’t pleased and vowed to make changes because the injuries were no excuse for their early exit. Still, a desire to make meaningful changes doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily find trading partners. Still, the Garden State outfit traded out Erik Haula and saw Brian Dumoulin sign elsewhere. New Jersey then signed free agents Connor Brown (four-year contract with a $3 million AAV) and former Hab Evgeny Dadonov (one-year deal with a $1 million AAV).

They also rewarded Allen with a five-year contract extension with a $1.8 M AAV to remain as Jacob Markstrom’s backup. While this gives New Jersey a very good goaltending tandem, it’s also a very old one. Allen has just turned 35, while Markstrom did the same in January. Still, for now at least, they are sorted in the net.

It will be tough for the Canadiens to do better against New Jersey unless, of course, a real second line emerges for the Habs. Ivan Demidov’s arrival could prompt much more offensive production. Still, the Russian wonder can’t do everything by himself, and he will need to have some support on the second line if he is to make any significant impact.

Noah Dobson’s arrival should also generate more offense from the blueline, as Lane Hutson carried the biggest of the load from the backend last season. The new arrivals should also give Montreal a much better power play that will feature two dangerous units instead of overloading the first one and making do with players who aren’t specialists on the second wave.

With a healthy J. Hughes, New Jersey is a great team and one that can be a bit of a measuring stick for the Canadiens when attempting to evaluate their progress. Being able to challenge teams like the Devils is a must for a young team that’s trying to become a contender.

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