G5 New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens: Time to regress

The Devils rank dead last in 5v5 shooting percentage through four games. It feels like a good time to change that.

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A few notes to get you set for New Jersey vs. Montreal:

Regression SZN

On Monday I wrote about how the Devils are a sleeping giant at 5v5. Although they haven’t been perfect, they rank 1st in chance generation per minute yet dead last in goals.

They’ve scored on only one of their high-danger chances. Jack Hughes has one point at 5v5. Timo Meier and Nico Hischier have zero. The team is shooting just over 3%. They’ve scored five goals below expectation at 5v5 through just four games. The list goes on.

Everything says the Devils are playing good to very good. Even if that weren’t the case, the percentages are so unsustainably low that they’d have to drastically improve moving forward.

Given the Devils are trending upwards in their ability to control the run of play, and the abundance of high-end talents on the roster, they feel poised for a huge outburst sooner rather than later. This feels like a good spot for the regression to kick in.

The underrated Jake Allen started – and stole the game – in Buffalo on Monday night, thus he will not play Tuesday.

The expectation was Sam Montembeault would get the nod but the Canadiens may be throwing a curveball and using Cayden Primeau instead. That would be a welcomed choice.

Primeau owns a putrid .871 save percentage through 21 NHL games. Although he was pretty good in the preseason, a couple decent starts against extremely watered down rosters doesn’t say a whole lot.

His NHL numbers are terrible and his AHL numbers are mediocre. Playing behind a Canadiens team that gives up shots in bulk, and takes a ton of penalties, he figures to be in line for a very tough night.

Expect the Devils to score early and often in this one.

A prime power play matchup