The Montreal Canadiens were riding a successful stretch of three games where it seemed like they were coming into their own as a rebuilding team. On Tuesday night they ran into a New Jersey Devils squad that was riding a nine-game winning streak. By the end of the night that was a 10-game run.
A 5-1 scoreline hides a few positives in this game, while highlighting several glaring negatives. We’ll start with the good, namely the first Canadiens’ goal for Evgenii Dadonov, who was very overdue for some luck in his favour. At the end of the game Dadonov led the Habs with an expected-goals-for percentage (xGF%) of 72.