After a spectacular performance Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins (1-0-0) make their home debut Saturday against the young but very good Montreal Canadiens (1-0-0) at PPG Paints Arena.
The puck drops just after 7 p.m.
The Penguins hung seven goals on the hated Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday. A couple of first-period goals became a few second-period goals and then a couple of later goals in the third period amounted to a 7-0 win at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Nick Robertson scored a pair of goals for the Penguins, the first goal of the season, and later scored a shorthanded goal in the third to increase the lead to 6-0. Filip Hallander had a goal and two assists, and the Penguins’ third line, with him, Ville Koivunen, and center Hendrix Lapierre, was dominant. Each scored a goal.
Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal in the second period, assisted by Lapierre, and Egor Chinakhov deflected Erik Karlsson’s shot for a third-period power-play goal.
Arturs Silovs stopped all 19 shots he faced for the shutout win, the second year in a row in which the Penguins won their first game via a Silovs shutout.
Montreal began their season with a feel-good win over a rival, too. Montreal beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena. Montreal’s depth scoring came through as Josh Anderson tied the game in the first period, Zachary Bolduc gave Montreal the lead in the second, and defenseman Alexandre Carrier scored the eventual winner in the third.
Goalie Jakub Dobes settled down after allowing an early William Nylander goal and made key saves on Kirill Marchenko and Nylander later in the game.
According to our colleague Marc Dumont at Montreal Hockey Now, Anderson, Bolduc, Kirby Dach, and Mike Matheson were Montreal’s standouts. The Canadiens also employed a more aggressive penalty kill, which Dumont credited to new assistant coach Derek Lalonde’s scheme.
Updated: Silovs will start Saturday.
Update 2: Center Blake Lizotte said he was available and wants to play. Friday, Muse said he would not be available, but Lizotte also participated in the morning skate.
How to Watch
TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh, TVA, Sportsnet
Radio: 105.9 The X
Penguins Lines
Nick Robertson-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinkahov-Tommy Novak-Evgeni Malkin
Ville Koivunen-Hendrix Lapierre-Filip Hallander
Connor Dewar-Ben Kindel-Andrei Kuzmenko
Defense
Declan Carlile-Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard-Kaedan Korczak
Trevor van Riemsdyk-Kris Letang
Goalie: Arturs Silovs, expected
Canadiens Lines
Cole Caufield–Nick Suzuki–Chris Kreider
Juraj Slafkovsky–Alex Newhook–Ivan Demidov
Alexandre Texier–Phillip Danault–Kirby Dach
Zachary Bolduc–Jake Evans–Josh Anderson
Defense
Mike Matheson–Noah Dobson
Lane Hutson–Alexandre Carrier
Jayden Struble–Arber Xhekaj
Goalie: Jakub Dobes, expected.
Special Teams
Penguins power play: 50%. Penguins penalty kill: 100%.
Canadiens power play: 0%. Canadiens penalty kill: 100%.
Penguins Game Notes
Three Penguins remain on injured reserve: Bryan Rust, Justin Brazeau, and Ben Kindel, but Kindel is expected to be activated before the game.
The Penguins have won seven of their last nine games against Montreal (7-2-0), dating back to Dec. 13, 2023. The Penguins have won four of the last five games against Montreal at PPG Paints Arena.
Andrei Kuzmenko will likely make his Penguins debut. He returned to the team Friday.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang earned their 494th career win
together on Wednesday in Philadelphia, passing San Jose’s Joe Thornton, Joe
Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (493) for the most regular-season wins by a
trio in NHL history.
Rickard Rakell has 20 points (9-11-20) in 22 career games against the
Canadiens, including 13 points (5-8-13) over his last nine games against them.
Tags:how to watch penguins game penguins games Penguins lines
Categorized:Penguins Pregame Pittsburgh Penguins