Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Montreal Canadiens 10/17/2022 – Lines, how to watch

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (2-0-0, 1st place Metropolitan Division) @ Montreal Canadiens (1-2-0, 7th place in the Atlantic Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. East

how to watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, ESPN+ elsewhere (Sportsnet East, RDS for the home broadcasts)

enemy track: The Habs got the season off to a flying start last Wednesday with a thrilling 4-3 home win over their rivals the Maple Leafs. Then Montreal took to the streets in a tackle and promptly lost both games (he was knocked out 3-0 in Detroit on Friday and then scored just one goal in a 3-1 loss in Washington on Saturday).

Pins way ahead: Pittsburgh gets a nice two-day break after tonight and will be back in action Thursday at home against the Los Angeles Kings. After that, the Pens headed into an extended five-game road swing that begins Saturday night in Columbus and then travels far further west next week.

season series: The Pens return to Montreal on November 12 in about a month (which is considered here to be one of the best games of the entire season for placement on a Saturday hockey night in Canada). The Canadians will make just one trip to Pittsburgh, arriving on March 13 to conclude the three-game PIT/MTL series this season. The Pens went 2-1-0 against the Canadiens in 2021-22.

Getting to know the Canadians

SBN Counterpart Blog: Keep an eye on the prize

Possible lines

FORWARD

Cole Caufield-Nick Suzuki-Josh Anderson

Sean Monahan – Kirby Dach – Mike Hoffman

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher

Rem Pitlick-Jake Evans-Evgenii Dadonov

DEFENDER

Kaiden Guhle / David Savard

Arber Xhekaj and Chris Wideman

Jordan Harris / Johnathan Kovacevic

Goalkeeper: Jake Allen Samuel Montembault

Scratch: Michael Pezzetta, Jonathan Drouin, Corey Schueneman

IR: Mike Matheson (expected to miss eight weeks with a stomach injury), Carey Price, Paul Bryon, Joel Armia, Joel Edmundson

– Tough times for the Habs on defense as Matheson is injured near the end of camp and misses most of the rest of the calendar year. Edmundson also on the IR means a very young and new defense. Xhekaj and Guhle had not played in the NHL until last week. Harris only had 10 NHL games last season. Kovacevic was recently claimed on waivers and had all four NHL games under his belt prior to this season. This group, which makes up the bulk of the defensive lineup, will cause some bumps along the way with such an inexperienced group. You must be thinking Mike Sullivan is drooling at the thought of getting his forecheck started on this young blueline.

—Mike Hoffman was a real threat to score 30 goals from 2014-2020, but his performance has declined with age. Last year, his first in Montreal, Hoffman scored just 15 goals in 67 games. He is without a point in three games so far this season and locals are starting to get restless as Montreal could soon have as many as 15 healthy forwards with some returners from injury. Hoffman, who turns 33 next month, is signed with a $4.5 million cap hit for this season and next.

statistics

via hockeydb

– Coach Martin St. Louis (still feels weird to say and think about that) has been very slow in bringing Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall winner of 2022, with him. Slafkovsky has made headlines for not yet being on the power play, averaging just under 11 minutes of ice time in his first three games. He has only one shot on goal.

—It’s very, very early, but Montreal’s problem was scoring goals. Their 1.67 goals/game is only t-29 in the league. Their powerplay is 0v10 young season. It obviously won’t make it with such a low offensive generation.

—The partnership between Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki at the top of the lineup isn’t lacking in offensive ability or confidence, however. Tagging and tracking them in every game they are in will be a difficult task.

goalkeeper focus

Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images

Goalkeeper Jake Allen was an early standout for Montreal because he has such a young defense. The 3-0 defeat to Detroit was offset by two empty net goals, with Allen keeping the Canadians in the game until the end, waiting for the offensive support that never materialized that night. Allen also did well with 29/32 saves in the season opener and did well against top-flight Toronto in his other appearance of the season. Backup Sam Montembeault had the other start in the B-2-B on Saturday, giving up three goals in the loss to Washington.

One goalkeeper who will unfortunately not be seen is Carey Price. Price is not pain free and may need surgery similar to Tommy John’s, but only for his knee joint. It is an operation that only has a 72% success rate going forward. Price said “other parts of my body are screaming at me too” with hip, knee, ankle and back problems on the side of his body that collapsed after 712 games in the NHL.

The future is unknown, but unfortunately it looks unlikely that Price will ever be healthy enough to play in the NHL again. The 35-year-old has four years left on his contract. Understandably, Price’s current focus appears to be more on managing his pain and trying to live a normal daily life with his children than on a return to goalkeeping at the NHL level due to the condition of his badly damaged knee joint.

Given that likelihood, the Canadiens have already extended Allen’s contract for two seasons past this year, and Allen is now considered the primary goaltender for the immediate future. The 32-year-old was never one of the best goalkeepers in the league. But he’s also been exceptionally adept at it over the years, consistently slightly above average with a career save rate of 0.911% and a record of 169-127-35 in what is perhaps surprisingly “a greater amount of work than you might believe” in the 355 game NHL career.

And now for the pens…

Projected Lines

Forward

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker Evgeni Malkin Bryan Rust

Danton Heinen – Jeff Carter – Kasperi Kapanen

Brock McGinn, Ryan Poehling, Josh Archibald

defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry

Pierre Olivier Joseph / Jan Rutta

Goalkeeper: Tristan Jarry Casey DeSmith

Scratch: Teddy Blueger (everyday injuries), Chad Ruhwedel

– The Pens held an optional practice session in Pittsburgh on their day off yesterday before heading north to Montreal for their first short road trip of the year.

—Blueger was out on the ice in a regular jersey and training yesterday. However, Blueger did not travel with the team and will not make his season debut tonight. Sullivan said Bluegers “status remains the same‘ which doesn’t sound particularly encouraging for a return in the near future.

– Poehling will be playing in Montreal for the first time as a visitor after playing 85 total NHL games with the Habs. Joseph will have a large quota by family and friends in his first NHL game against his hometown team.

player corner

Alright, we’ll go ahead and enjoy this run while it lasts before the worm inevitably spins at some point. With the early success of splitting my typical $10 unit into two bets, I’ll keep going. You can’t mess with a streak that works.

• $5.00 on Penguins -0.5 puck line, first period (+115 to pay $10.75)
• $5.00 on Sidney Crosby via 0.5 power play points (+140 to pay $12.00)

The Pens are outperforming their opponents in the early stages of play so far with a combined 4-1 score. Montreal hasn’t scored in the first period in their three games this season. The payout is too good to ignore for Pittsburgh to get off to a hot start, win the first period and win this bet.

The power play of the pens is 4-10 on an annual basis. The top unit has three of these targets, and Crosby has assisted on all three of these PPGs. I like how that clicks and how the big boys move the puck

Season Tips: 4-0, +1,591 units

milestone clock

• Mike Sullivan has 299 career wins as the Penguins coach. He’s already the most successful coach in franchise history, it’s just another nice round number for him to hit with the next win.
• On Saturday, Sidney Crosby’s three-point game earned him 1,415 career NHL points, which propelled him 19th in league history and above Doug Gilmour (1,414 points, now ranked 20th). Next on Sid’s list is Adam Oates with 1,420 points.
• Crosby has as many as 896 career assists, which ranks 20th all-time in the NHL tally. He’ll hit the nice round number before reaching 19th place (currently Bryan Trottier – 901 assists).
• Evgeni Malkin is paying attention in game 984 tonight and could hit the four-figure mark as early as next month. Kris Letang is slightly behind him in game #944 tonight with a chance to get there later in the season.
• Malkin currently ranks 57th in NHL history with 1,148 points. The next significant milestone for him is likely that with 32 more points, he would overtake Sergei Fedorov (1,179) as the second highest-ranked Russian player in NHL history and, by the time he reached it, would take Malkin to ranked 53rd in NHL history.
• Jake Guentzel is 12th all-time in Penguin history with 163 goals. His next goal will see him finish 11th (Ron Francis, 164), and 10th (Martin Straka, 165) is also within reach. Chris Kunitz’s 169 Penguin goals in ninth place aren’t too far off either, as Guentzel begins climbing the franchise’s record books.