Who: Montreal Canadiens (15-11-3, 33 points, 4th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (14-7-7, 35 points, 4th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet Pittsburgh, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The long homestand rolls on with matinee games at PPG Paints this weekend against San Jose (3pm on Saturday) and Utah (also 3pm on Sunday). Connor McDavid and Edmonton come to town next Tuesday before the Pens hit the road playing in Ottawa
a week from today then rematch Montreal next Saturday (12/20) up north before playing the Habs once again the following day in Pittsburgh on Sunday 12/21.
Opponent Track: An up and down season has been mostly down lately in Quebec, despite four home games the Canadiens are just 2-3-0 in the month of December and both wins required a shootout to get there. They’ve lost two straight, 4-3 to St. Louis on Sunday and then took a 6-1 pounding to Tampa on Tuesday night in their last game.
Season Series: As mentioned above, this this three-game season series will be completed within 10 days time. The Pens make their only visit to Montreal next week on December 20th, then the Habs come back to Pittsburgh the very next night to close it out.
Hidden Stat: Well, it’s not that hidden these days, but per Josh Yohe the Pens have blown a lead in seven out of the last 14 games.
Getting to know the Canadiens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Zachary Bolduc
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov
Josh Anderson – Owen Beck – Alexandre Texier
Jared Davidson – Joe Veleno – Brendan Gallagher
DEFENSEMEN
Mike Matheson / Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson / Jayden Struble
Arber Xhekaj / Alexandre Carrier
Goalies: Sam Montembeault, Kaapo Kahkonen and Jakub Dobes
Potential scratches: Jake Evans (personal), Adam Engstrom
Injured Reserve: Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Kaiden Guhle
- Injury games lost this season are way up so far this season, the Habs are no different there. Up front they have some notable and important losses to the lineup standing out as especially harmful.
- Evans is the latest on this list, officially he’s out for “personal reasons” tonight, RDS had reported Evans left the team to seek a foot specialist in Philadelphia.
- It seems like a lifetime ago (and 11 years in the NHL is basically that) where Mario Lemieux was pining over players like Brendan Gallagher when it came to the element the Pens were missing in 2014 when the brass fired Ray Shero. Gallagher is still “only” 33 years old, though he, Anderson (31) and Matheson (31) are the only 30+ year old players on what is still a very young Montreal team from top to bottom.
- 21-year old Jacob Fowler has been recalled from the AHL in goal, and judging from these stats below you can see why that would be. Montembeault has never carried a strong save percentage but his work on goals saved above average was very strong last year. That isn’t the case this time around. 24-year old Dobes has provided some ‘flash in the pan’ type of help in the past but has struggled with a bigger workload this season. Fowler would be making his NHL debut tonight if he sees action.
- As of yesterday, coach Martin St. Louis wouldn’t confirm when Fowler will make his NHL debut, so that might be worth tracking this morning if official word will come out. Given that both Montembeault and Dobes gave up three goals a piece (on 13 or 14 shots) last game points towards giving the fresh-faced rookie a chance. Hard to imagine that they’ve called him up to have him watch the other struggling goalies..
Season stats
via hockeydb
- The Caufield-Suzuki partnership is always one to watch when playing Montreal. Those stars are hot, Caufield has eight points (3G+5A) in the last seven games, Suzuki has been doing his thing with playmaking (1G+6A) in this span too.
- The electric rookie Demidov will be a player to keep an eye on as well in his first action against the Pens. The youngster has assists in four-straight games but has only scored two goals in his last 16 contests.
- Is this a sophomore slump for Lane Hutson? He only has nine points (4G+5A) and a -7 in the last 16 games, and only one point in his last four and only one assist in his last seven games. Those aren’t atrocious numbers but this is the first stretch in a while that the youngster (who scored 66 points in 82 games last year) has fallen off that production.
Key matchup: Pittsburgh offense vs. Montreal defense
Montreal is allowing 3.55 goals against per game, among the very worst in the NHL. The Pens have been able to stack up shots and chances, and they’re coming off a 47 shot performance against Anaheim on Tuesday. Tonight could and probably should be more of the same with the Pittsburgh offense able dictate play and generate a ton of looks. The Canadiens haven’t been much to stop that this season, at 5v5 or 4v5. Whether or not the Pens can take advantage and finish on their chances will be a big determining factor in this game.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Tommy Novak – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Justin Brazeau – Kevin Hayes – Anthony Mantha
Rutger McGroarty – Ben Kindel – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Danton Heinen – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Matt Dumba, Harrison Brunicke
IR: Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, Filip Hallander, Rickard Rakell, Caleb Jones, Jack St. Ivany
- The Pens were off yesterday and officially assigned Sam Poulin to the AHL. That gives them one open roster spot, which could foretell the activation of Rakell or St. Ivany from IR. Rakell was cleared for contact earlier this week and the team only has 12 forwards, so read in between those lines as you will.
- Brunicke will be joining up with Team Canada’s U-20 team, but he’s still found on the official scratch list as of Tuesday, if you were curious, so he remains on the outlook here as a scratch.
- Jarry has found success traditionally against Montreal, the goalie is 8-1-1 all-time against MTL with a 2.50 GAA, one shutout and a .911 save%. There’s no official word he will be starting but after Silovs’ latest loss it makes all the sense to go back to Jarry tonight considering he is 4-0-1 since returning from an injury on November 26th.
- Sidney Crosby enters the night five points away from tying Mario Lemieux’s franchise record 1,723 points. Crosby has 69 career points (25G+44A) in 52 games against the Canadiens.
