Who: Montreal Canadiens (19-12-4, 42 points, 2nd place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (14-11-9, 37 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Broadcast locally
Sportsnet Pittsburgh, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens go right back to Canada for a game on Tuesday night against the Maple Leafs before making it to their December 24-27 holiday break. Can’t come soon enough!
Opponent Track: Montreal came into the December 11th game against the Pens at perhaps a season rock bottom following a 6-1 drubbing to Tampa. The Habs 4-1-1 since that moment (including two wins against Pittsburgh) for a nice little turnaround.
Season Series: Tonight will be the last of the meetings between the Pens and Canadiens this year, and not a moment too soon for the Pens with the way things have gone so far after Montreal defeated them 4-2 on Dec 11th and 4-0 last night.
Getting to know the Canadiens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Zack Bolduc
Juraj Slafkovsky – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov
Alexandre Texier – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson
Joe Veleno – Owen Beck – Brendan Gallagher
DEFENSEMEN
Mike Matheson / Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson / Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj / Adam Engstrom
Goalies: Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler
Potential scratches: Jayden Struble, Philip Danault (?)
Injured Reserve: Kaiden Guhle, Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach
- Danault didn’t play last night after his recent trade back to the Habs, we’ll have to see if he’s available to make his re-debut with Montreal tonight.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- It’s nice to see a team a few times within 10 days to learn more about them. Fowler definitely looks like he will live up to the hype (though as pointed out in the recap, so far he’s had two great outings against the Pens and then not been sharp in his other starts. Annoying!). Suzuki and Caufield are masters. Slafkovsky has impressed scoring a goal in both MTL/PIT games.
- Demidov has been good in his rookie season, but was very quiet last night. No shot attempts in only 14:21 of ice time during a comfortable win. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of rookie wall he hits, if one at all.
- Montreal adding Danault back in a trade, for the cost of only a second round pick, looks like a great move for them to make. Danault’s point production can be hit or miss but he is a very reliable checking center and good away from the puck. The Canadiens have enough firepower and guys who can take care of the offense, they could use a player with Danault’s skillset to boost them down the middle.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Tommy Novak – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Rickard Rakell – Justin Brazeau
Ville Koivunen – Ben Kindel – Rutger McGroarty
Connor Dewar – Kevin Hayes – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Danton Heinen, Ryan Graves, Jack St. Ivany
IR: Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones
- Dan Muse surely had some time to think on the way home last night from Montreal about how his changes (reflected above) worked out. In one sense, it wasn’t the absolute worst. They generated 3.6 expected goals according to MoneyPuck and were stymied by Fowler. That doesn’t put any actual goals on the board but could be some evidence to support giving the changes a little more time to see if they can figure it out before shaking it up again.
- Presumably will be Silovs in net tonight, he like the Pens could use a slump buster. Silovs is 0-3-4 in his last seven decisions and hasn’t notched a victory since November 6th against Washington. Maybe he and the team are due for something good to happen? That hope is about all you can hang your hat on right now since all the recent evidence is not very encouraging.
