Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils: Cole Caufield Headlines a Road Test at Prudential Center

First period

The regular-season matchup lists the Canadiens as the away team and the Devils as the home team for tournament round 1 with a scheduled puck drop timestamp of 2026-04-04T23:00:00+00:00.

The early betting read centers on Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils sportsbook odds that will ultimately price in Montreal’s available scoring options like Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovský, Brendan Gallagher, and Ivan Demidov.

The opening 20 minutes also reflect the reality that Montreal is carrying multiple Injured Reserve absences, with Patrik Laine out with an abdomen injury, Kirby Dach out with a foot injury, and Alex Newhook out with an ankle injury.

The first-period defensive posture is further shaped by Kaiden Guhle being out after surgery for a partially torn abductor muscle with an 8–10 week timeline, which pushes more responsibility onto Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson, Lane Hutson, Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, Adam Engstrom, and Alexandre Carrier.

Second period

The middle frame is where Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils odds and picks often swing most sharply when books react to bench depth, and Montreal’s forward rotations feature names like Josh Anderson, Jake Evans, Joe Veleno, Zachary Bolduc, Jared Davidson, Florian Xhekaj, Alexandre Texier, and Oliver Kapanen.

Any in-game line movement in the second period commonly traces back to availability in net, and Montreal’s listed goaltenders include Samuel Montembeault and Jakub Dobes for this spot on the schedule.

This portion of the Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils match analysis stays tied to how the Habs’ healthy skaters absorb the minutes normally carried by Laine, Dach, Newhook, and Guhle, because those four are explicitly listed as out.

Third period

Late-game pricing naturally funnels into Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils over under decisions, because the result can hinge on whether Montreal’s remaining top-end finishers like Caufield, Suzuki, and Slafkovský can generate enough offense without Laine, Dach, and Newhook available.

The third period also spotlights the Canadiens’ ability to close with their available defense group—Dobson, Matheson, Hutson, Carrier, Xhekaj, Struble, and Engstrom—because Guhle’s out status removes one option from late-matchup deployments.

If the live odds shift late, the cleanest factual explanation inside this dataset is roster availability, since the only explicit performance-impacting notes provided are the four Canadiens injuries and the otherwise intact list of active skaters and goaltenders.

In terms of watch and wager planning, the Canadiens visit the Devils on April 4, 2026 at 7:00 PM ET at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and the game is on NHL Network and MSG, so lock in your reads, track the live betting lines, and share this article with fellow Habs fans.