The Montreal Canadiens will face the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight in what should be a very entertaining game. The last time the teams met, the Canadiens were undefeated while the Penguins were winless. Since then, Montreal has continued with their winning ways having only lost only 3 matches, 2 of which were in regulation while Pittsburgh has gone 9-2. Montreal won the previous meeting by a score of 3-2 and I expect tonight’s game to be a close one as well.
Much of the focus in Pittsburgh has been on the slow start to the season by its stars: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. Malkin is their leading scorer with 11 points in 14 games. Kessel is right behind him with 10 points and shockingly Crosby only has 7 and is a -6 on the season. Comparatively, the Canadiens have 9 (!) players with 11 or more points although it should be noted that they have played 2 more games than the Penguins. I don’t think anyone could have possibly imagined that Dale Weise, Torrey Mitchell and Tomas Fleischmann would be outscoring Crosby at this point through the season. Crosby has too much talent to stay in this kind of slump and he usually rises to the occasion, especially when playing the Canadiens as he’s recorded 38 points in 29 career games against the Habs. Regardless of the individual stats, the Canadiens know that they can never take the Penguins lightly.
Marc-André Fleury has not been getting enough credit for his impressive play to start the season. The Penguins are not winning games because they are scoring so many goals, they’re winning because their goalies are stopping them. Fleury has a 1.93 GAA and .933 Save Percentage. Here is the projected lineup for the Penguins tonight:
Correction trios # Penguins
Dupuis-Crosby-Bennett;
Perron-Malkin-Kessel;
Kunitz-Bonino-Hornqvist;
SPRONG-Cullen-Fehr.
— Chantal Machabee (@ChantalMachabee) November 11, 2015Défenseurs #Penguins.
Cole - Letang;
Maatta - Scuderi;
Dumoulin - Lovejoy.
— Chantal Machabee (@ChantalMachabee) November 11, 2015On the Canadiens side, head coach Michel Therrien has elected not to make any changes to the lineup and so Alex Semin is once again a healthy scratch. Devante Smith-Pelly will play on the right side of Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk, hoping to build on some of the chemistry that they were starting to show during their last game.
5 Questions for Tonight’s Game:
1) Who will have more points tonight, David Desharnais or Sidney Crosby?
2) Max Pacioretty scored an empty net goal in the last game against the Bruins to break his scoreless streak. The last time the Canadiens played the Penguins Pacioretty scored two goals. Is a new batch of goals coming for the captain?
3) Can the Canadiens keep their powerplay going against Pittsburgh which has the 3rd best penalty kill in the NHL?
4) When will Mike Condon’s magical run end? He has not allowed more than 2 goals in any of his 7 starts, nor has he lost in regulation. Can he hold the fort against a Pittsburgh offence that is itching to break through?
5) Which line will Plekanec-Pacioretty-Gallagher be matched up against, Crosby’s or Malkin’s? Will Torrey Mitchell draw the other assignment?
Puck Drops at 7:30pm
Cheers & Enjoy The Game! Follow @Jenbcutler