The NHL season may be a marathon rather than a race, but getting a good start out of the blocks definitely cannot hurt. Samuel Montembeault has allowed the Montreal Canadiens to get a respectable start, but the Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t as lucky.
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In their first game of the year, the Pens were obliterated by the New York Rangers, losing 6-0; they signed a 6-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings in their second game before losing 4-2 to the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
As always, the Pens’ Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin are leading the way, the former with three points in as many games and the latter with four. They are followed by Anthony Beauvillier, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson.
With Kyle Dubas at the helm, Pittsburgh has decided to commit to its “core four,” which isn’t exactly shocking considering his work in Toronto. But those core players are no springchickens. Crosby is 37, Malkin is 38, Letang is 37, and Karlsson is 34. That’s a lot of money committed to aging players.
Pittsburgh missed the playoffs for the second year in a row last season, and they are desperately trying to get another Stanley Cup run out of a trio that got them to the Promise Land three times. But can the second-oldest team in the NHL make it?
Yesterday, Mike Matheson missed practice to receive treatment, but there’s no word about him potentially missing the game. Juraj Slafkovsky, who left the game briefly on Saturday night before returning for the third period, was there and an active participant.
Tonight’s tilt will be the first of three meetings between the two sides this season. The last time they met was in February and the Pens signed a 4-1 win at home, Cayden Primeau was credited with the loss. Pittsburgh has won the last three duels and six of the last 10. Montreal’s last win against the Pens came in March 2023 when they got a 6-4 triumph on the road.
Sidney Crosby is now just one point shy of becoming the 10th player in NHL history to reach to 1,600-point mark. Should he do it tonight, he would be the fifth fastest player to reach the milestone needing 1276 games to do it. The four fastest players to the mark were Wayne Gretzky (667 games), Mario Lemieux (812 games), Marcel Dionne (1,164 games) and Jaromir Jagr (1,274 games). The latter was the last one to reach the milestone back in 2011.
Montreal native blueline Kris Letang particularly enjoys playing against the Canadiens he has 35 points against them in 44 career-games and he’ll try to add a few points to that total tonight. As for his captain, Crosby has got 64 points in 49 games.
With the Penguins not being a physical opponent, it will be interesting to see if Jayden Struble gets to make his season debut and who will make it if he is ready. While some advocated for Lane Hutson to be part of a rotation early on, he has shown he certainly doesn’t need some time off, at least not for now. I assume Arber Xhekaj or Justin Barron will make way if Struble is in.
Alex Barre-Boulet was also put on waivers yesterday which begs the question why? Do they want to recall someone else? Logan Mailloux had a statement game to start his AHL season but recalling him to no play him regularly wouldn’t make much sense. Would be surprising if it meant Struble will be out longer since he has been taking part in practices, this is somewhat puzzling. Or, it may just mean they’d rather see Barre-Boulet play in the AHL then have to rotate him in costing valuable ice time and experience for Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen. No recalled players took part in the morning skate, the Canadiens might just go with a trimmed roster for now.
The Canadiens have now confirmed that Samuel Montembeault will be in net for a third game this season, which was pretty much expected, but the Penguins have yet to confirm who will be in their net. Struble stayed on the ice for some extra work while the regulars left the ice, likely indicates he won’t be in the line-up.
Related: Canadiens: Disappointing Development For Summer Signing
As always, the game is scheduled for 7:30 PM ET, and struggling or not, it’s also entertaining to see Crosby and co. You won’t want to miss this one.
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