PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins delayed the start of their game by 30 minutes Thursday night because of a major traffic accident that prevented many of their players from arriving at PPG Paints Arena on time.
Though the game officially began at 7:38 p.m. with all of the Penguins on the ice, they didn’t actually start playing hockey until around 9:30 p.m. By then, it was far too little, too late.
The Penguins looked like a team that just showed up before puck drop: fumbling passes, falling for no particular reason, and playing one of their worst games of the season in a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal goaltender Jacob Fowler made his NHL debut, and though he wasn’t challenged for long portions of the evening, he made a few spectacular saves to earn the victory.
“He was solid,” Sidney Crosby said. “We had some good looks. He looked pretty good in there.”
He’s the next in a long line of Canadiens goaltenders who made their first NHL start against the Penguins, including Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Carey Price. All three of those legendary goaltenders won their first start against the Penguins, and all three of those games were played in Pittsburgh.
Fowler joined the club. The Penguins, however, didn’t make him work very hard for it. They didn’t register a shot on goal until 10 minutes into the first period and recorded only four shots on net in the game’s first 25 minutes.
They came to life at times in the second period, but it wasn’t enough, and it certainly wasn’t enough to beat Fowler, who looked more than up to the task when challenged.
The Penguins are now 0-1-1 on their five-game homestand and next play Saturday afternoon against the San Jose Sharks.
Ten postgame observations
• The Penguins have an obvious, built-in excuse: They got to the game much later than usual, and hockey players, you may have heard, are creatures of habit.
To their credit, none of them used it as an excuse.
“It was a late start for them, too,” coach Dan Muse said. “It was a combination of execution. … We were slow to get to areas, slow to support. We weren’t winning the races. Everything looked off.”
Rutger McGroarty had a golden scoring chance on an odd-man rush in the second period, received a feed from Ben Kindel and promptly fell. It was that kind of a night. The Penguins were remarkably sloppy in the first period — how that period ended with them down only 1-0 was astonishing.
• On the other hand, maybe they had a hangover from what happened Tuesday.
In their previous game, the Penguins produced an unimaginably horrible final 18 seconds of regulation, letting the short-handed Anaheim Ducks even the score with 0.1 seconds remaining. That’s the kind of loss that can have a psychological impact on a team. In this case, I very much believe it did.
• Making matters worse, Crosby was almost injured in the first period. A Kris Letang blast belted Crosby on the inside of his left foot. He was barely able to get to the bench under his own power and appeared to be in agony for the next few minutes.
Crosby did not miss a shift and looked fine the rest of the game. In fact, he started playing better after the incident. Crosby set up Bryan Rust’s goal early in the third period, which brings the Penguins’ captain within 4 points of Mario Lemieux’s franchise record of 1,723 career points.
After the game, Crosby confirmed that although he was in a great deal of pain initially, he’s fine.
• Speaking of Letang, it was another rough night.
On his first shift, he got trapped on the ice for two minutes and 20 seconds, partially because of an early turnover on his part. At the conclusion of the shift, he coughed up the puck once again. This one ended up in the back of the Penguins’ net.
Coucou, c’est Texier
*Tex notification* “Alexandre scored”#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/lmjDkUZoNE
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 12, 2025
Letang has been responsible for an enormous number of goals against this season. I don’t know what the solution is. It’s easy to say “bench him,” but it’s not like the Penguins have better players waiting in the wings to replace him right now.
If he doesn’t start playing better, however, the Penguins won’t make the playoffs. They don’t always go as he goes, which has been the case for years. Still, his mistakes are so enormous right now that they’re hamstringing the team on a regular basis.
• The Penguins finally showed life early in the third period when Rust scored in the first minute.
It took the Canadiens all of 15 seconds to respond with a goal. It came on a two-on-one in which Ryan Shea was trapped, so much of the blame goes to him.
However, as I have covered extensively, Letang’s inability to play two-on-ones well is a massive problem. He refuses to simply take away the passing lane. Instead, he goes puck chasing. He does it every time.
And he got burned.
Un 10e but cette saison pour Kapanen!
KAPPY ANSWERS RIGHT BACK#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/AiQtgRjsvF
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 12, 2025
• Muse was asked after the game if he’s satisfied with Letang’s performance.
“Kris Letang has been doing this for a long time at a high level,” he said. “Every day he comes in, he works, he’s prepared, he sets an example for other players on this team. And I know every day he’s going to empty the tank for this hockey team and this city. There are going to be some games where players walk off the ice, and maybe they wanted to do a little bit more. It’s not perfect. The puck bounced the wrong way. It’s going to happen to everybody. Kris Letang brings it every single day.”
Everything Muse said was true. Of course, he also didn’t answer the question, which was fairly telling.
Muse is understandably going to tread lightly here. Letang is a franchise icon and an instrumental person in that dressing room. But his performance has probably never been worse.
• The Penguins miss Evgeni Malkin terribly. They went 1-for-7 on the power play, where he has played a huge role on the top unit. The drop from Malkin to Anthony Mantha on the man advantage is very clear.
Speaking of Mantha, he hasn’t been the same player without Malkin in the lineup. I’d suggest the same can be said of Justin Brazeau. Without Malkin and Rickard Rakell, the Penguins simply aren’t the same team.
• The all-rookie line of Kindel, McGroarty and Ville Koivunen was again the Penguins’ best unit.
Kindel was one of the few players who looked focused in this game, and he and McGroarty are developing plenty of chemistry. McGroarty drew a couple of penalties, hit the post and had a couple of other golden opportunities. He needs to start scoring at some point. The good news, however, is that he is generating plenty of looks. I believe the offense will come in his case.
I have some concerns about Koivunen, however. His release has been horribly slow. It’s a mental thing more than a physical thing. He needs to be more decisive and shoot the puck when he has open looks. This was not a good game for him. He’s getting far too many shots blocked, and he took a bad penalty in the offensive zone.
• I was extremely impressed with Fowler. It must be daunting to stand in the net for the first 10 minutes of your first NHL game and not see a shot. Goalies hate that. For that matter, the start of the game was delayed by 30 minutes, which can’t possibly be ideal for a goalie making his debut.
You never would have known it, though. The young man was unflappable all night. His poise in the net was noteworthy. Very impressive debut.
• I can’t emphasize enough how important the weekend’s games are for the Penguins.
Sure, losing streaks happen. And sure, they’re still in perfectly fine shape in the standings. However, this is the longest homestand of the season, and you can’t let opportunities like this go to waste. The conclusion of the homestand sees Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers play here Tuesday, and while it hasn’t been a good start for the Oilers, they’re beginning to heat up. You already know that one won’t be easy.
The Sharks and the Utah Mammoth are no jokes, but the Penguins need to wake up. This homestand couldn’t have started much worse.