During his media availability, Suzuki took a moment to defend #8. #Habs Nick Suzuki came to bat for Mike Matheson: “he plays the hardest minutes on our team against the toughest players.

Suzuki appeared to catch Connor Hellebuyck by surprise with his pass from behind the net to Juraj Slafkovsky, who beat the netminder to give Montreal a 1-0 lead. Suzuki has four points in the last two games and leads the Canadiens with 36 assists through 50 outings.

The No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, Hischier has 404 points in 520 career regular-season and playoff games in the NHL.

Three-point effort not enough

Many Habs fans are criticizing Matheson these days, and even though several people from the hockey community have come to his defense, nothing carries more weight than the one who just defended Matheson: captain Nick Suzuki. During his media availability ...

Devils captain Nico Hischier, who suffered an uppoer-body injury after a high cross check vs. Montreal, will be re-evalutated next week, coach Sheldon Keefe said.