Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (5-6-2, 12 points, 6th place Metropolitan Division) @ Montreal Canadiens (8-3-2, 18 points, 2nd place Atlantic Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcast in Canada on SNE, SN1 and TVAS and locally on Sportsnet Pittsburgh, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins are back home next week for a Tuesday matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights and Thursday game against the Boston Bruins. The Pens then hit the road for a West Coast swing that starts next weekend
with a back-to-back in Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Opponent Track: The Canadiens are riding a four-game win streak into Saturday despite losing captain Nick Suzuki to injury ahead of their recent road trip. The Habs have outscored opponents 13-4 over that away stretch, which was capped off Thursday by a 5-2 win at the Dallas Stars.
Season Series: The Penguins started out the season series earlier this month by blowing a four-goal lead before Tommy Novak scored in overtime to salvage a 6-5 win in Montreal. These two teams will meet for a final time this season Jan. 9 in Pittsburgh.
Hidden Stat: The Canadiens are on the longest win streak in the NHL thanks to their 4-0-0 run through their recent road trip.
Getting to know the Canadiens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Cole Caufield – Alex Newhook – Juraj Slafkovsky
Chris Kreider – Oliver Kapanen – Josh Anderson
Zack Bolduc – Phillip Danault – Alexandre Texier
Florian Xhekaj – Jake Evans – Kirby Dach
DEFENSEMEN
Lane Hutson / Noah Dobson
Kaiden Guhle / Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj / Adam Engstrom
Goalies: Jakub Dobes, Jacob Fowler
Potential scratches: Mike Matheson (day to day)
Injured Reserve: Ivan Demidov, Sam Montembeault, Nick Suzuki
- The Canadiens announced last week Suzuki would miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury. Star winger Ivan Demidov is toward the latter end of his own two-to-four week injury timeline, while former Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson missed the Habs’ last game with a lower-body injury.
- Jakub Dobes was the star of the Canadiens’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals last spring, but he struggled to start the season before bouncing back in Thursday’s win in Dallas. It’s been Jacob Fowler who has stepped up most for the Canadiens, and given that Dobes started against the Stars it could be Fowler back in net against the Pens.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Alex Newhook, who has replaced Suzuki as the Habs’ first-line center in the short term, is coming off his most productive game of the season following a two-goal outing in Dallas.
- Cole Caufield is another player who’s stepped up amid the Canadiens’ current injury absences. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn reported Caufield has gone from a 22.6 percent contested lose puck recovery rate, a number at which he’s spent most of his career, to ranking fifth in the NHL by recovering 44 percent of his contested loose puck battles so far.
- One thing the Canadiens haven’t been able to figure out with Suzuki and Demidov is their power play, which has sunk to 31st in the league after converting on just 10.3 percent of opportunities so far this season. The Penguins will hope to take advantage of that as one of five teams with multiple shorthanded goals so far this season.
Habs keep leads, Pens blow them
The Penguins could learn something from how the Canadiens reacted to failing to close out games earlier this season.
The Habs were struggling with blown leads early this fall, most recently in an Oct. 20 loss during which the Canadiens gave up a two-goal third-period advantage in an overtime defeat by the San Jose Sharks.
The Canadiens responded by claiming four straight regulation wins and successfully weathering multiple late comeback attempts on their recent road trip.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Tommy Novak – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov – Ben Kindel – Evgeni Malkin
Andrei Kuzmenko – Hendrix Lapierre – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Nick Robertson
DEFENSEMEN
Spencer Stastney / Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard / Kaeden Korczak
Declan Carlile / Kris Letang
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov
Potential Scratches: Rutger McGroarty, Ilya Solovyov
IR: Ryan Graves, Elmer Soderblom
- The Penguins stuck with their same lines in Friday’s practice following Thursday’s late-game collapse against the Mammoth.
- Erik Karlsson (949 career points) is one point away from tying Brent Burns for a spot on the NHL’s list top-10 list of most productive defensemen.
- Sidney Crosby (1,111 career assists) is one assist away from passing the Boston Bruins’ Ray Bourque for the most helpers with a single team in NHL history.
