Canadiens at Devils preview

CANADIENS (33-22-7) AT DEVILS (24-30-8)
7 p.m. ET; MSG+, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV

Drouin did not play in a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday because of an illness. The Canadiens hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, and are five points behind the Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division with 20 regular-season games remaining.
Marcus Johansson is expected to be scratched for the third straight game for the Devils, who earlier in the day traded goalie Keith Kinkaid to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Players to watch

Canadiens forward Max Domi has five points (three goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak.
Devils goalie Cory Schneider is 3-1-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average and .956 save percentage in his past four games after going 0-17-4 in his previous 24 regular-season games.

They said it

"We're headed down the stretch so you want to make sure you're well positioned. Not many people had us in this spot so we're happy where we are, but we want to be in the playoffs. There's 20 games left and we still can fix our game a little bit." -- Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin
"I'm excited to see
Nathan Bastian
and Mike McLeod in the lineup tonight. Mike is a very fast skater, tenacious on the puck and has a strong work ethic in the face-off circle. Nathan is a big, strong kid with a physical presence. We'll have him on the net-front on the power play." -- Devils coach John Hynes

Canadiens projected lineup

Jonathan Drouin -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher
Tomas Tatar -- Max Domi -- Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Joel Armia
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nate Thompson -- Matthew Peca
Victor Mete -- Shea Weber
Mike Reilly -- Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak -- Jordie Benn
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched: Charles Hudon, Nicolas Deslauriers, Christian Folin, Dale Weise, Jordan Weal
Injured: None

Devils projected lineup

Miles Wood -- Nico Hischier -- Kyle Palmieri
Michael McLeod
-- Travis Zajac -- Blake Coleman
Kenny Agostino -- Drew Stafford -- Kurtis Gabriel
Kevin Rooney -- Nathan Bastian
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Mirco Mueller -- Connor Carrick
Will Butcher -- Steven Santini
Egor Yakovlev
Cory Schneider
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scratched:Marcus Johansson, Eric Gryba
Injured:Taylor Hall (lower body), Sami Vatanen (concussion), Stefan Noesen (lower body), Pavel Zacha (upper body), Jesper Bratt (lower body)

Status report

Weal was acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes for forward Michael Chaput. ... The Devils recalled Bastian, McLeod, Yakovlev and Blackwood from Binghamton of the American Hockey League. Bratt is day to day.

Stat pack

Tatar has five points (three goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Gallagher has 10 points (seven goals, three assists) in his past nine games. ... Zajac has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past six games.