The Pittsburgh Penguins have hit the road for the first time this season. They are in Montreal to face the storied Canadiens. Montreal’s fall from grace last year was pretty harsh. Their run to the Cup Final, while exciting, wasn’t a true reflection of who they were. They regressed hard and ended up with the first overall pick in the draft as a result of their increased odds. Juraj Slafkovsky was their selection with the first overall pick and he is currently in the lineup, albeit on the fourth line. Here is the lineup Montreal is going with tonight
There are some new faces on the roster as it pertains to Montreal. Shea Weber and Carey Price are both on LTIR retirement (perhaps not Price but looking that way). Also gone are Artturi Lehkonen, Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chariot and to a much lesser extent Ryan Poehling. In are new players like Sean Monahan, Evgeni Dadonov, Kirby Dach, and the already mentioned Slafkovsky. There is also one more familiar face, Mike Matheson. Although he is injured and will not be in the lineup tonight.
Jeff Petry will be in the lineup tonight and I imagine he will have a favorable response from the home crowd. He was exactly the kind of player the team needed and exactly the kind of player the Oilers needed, despite them trading him away. I expect Petry to have some jump in his step this evening.
Another player who will be juiced up for tonight’s game will be Pierre-Olivier Joseph who is from the Montreal suburb of Laval, the place where Mario Lemieux played his junior hockey. He is finally getting to play some NHL minutes and I expect he is going to be able to do so tonight with lots of family in friends in attendance. A feel good moment for a player who has been hard pressed to make his way up the lineup in recent years.
Things started strong for Montreal this year when they beat the rival Maple Leafs 4-3 on opening night. The last two games have been uphill battles. Regulation losses to both Detroit and Washington saw them only score one goal total while giving up six. Small sample size alert, but their life doesn’t appear to be getting any easier. Pittsburgh through two games has picked up right where they left off in the postseason, playing great hockey. The big difference being Tristan Jarry is healthy and the Penguins aren’t playing a below replacement level starter.
Casey DeSmith is also healthy again and he will get his first start of the season tonight. DeSmith had a forgettable regular season last year, but showed signs of getting back on track before he suffered his season ending injury and was unavailable for the playoffs.
Lastly, there’s a guy who was a Canadiens fan growing up who very much enjoys playing in Montreal. Coincidently, he was also named the NHL’s first star of the week.
Thanks for reading!
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