Game 12: Montreal Canadiens @ Pittsburgh Penguins
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CityTV (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Penguins region: Sportsnet Pittsburgh
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
A week after pulling off an elusive sweep of consecutive games, things are bad for the Montreal Canadiens again. Losses of 8-2 and 6-3 this week had the players working not on tactics and drills, but skating the length of the ice surface at practice as punishment for their recent play.
Whether it’s an inability to protect the front of the net, multiple players either standing in the same spot or checking the same opponent, or simply careless turnovers on their own half of the rink, they’ve been making life difficult for themselves, and they were already facing a tough challenge with so much youth in the lineup. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that it isn’t the rookies making all the mistakes, but the veterans on the wrong side of the highlights far too often. There are a lot of players who need to increase their level even to their typical standard if Montreal is going to address its defensive troubles.
The Canadiens are one of three NHL teams allowing four goals or more per game, but they do play another one of those teams tonight when they travel to Pittsburgh to play the Penguins for the second of three times. The Pennsylvanian team just put an end to a six-game losing streak during which it surrendered 27 goals, so the PA announcer might be busy in tonight’s game.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Penguins |
|---|---|---|
| 4-6-1 | Record | 4-7-1 |
| 43.9% (29th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.8% (18th) |
| 2.91 (21st) | Goals per game | 2.92 (20th) |
| 4.18 (T-31st) | Goals against per game | 4.00 (30th) |
| 22.0% (11th) | PP% | 20.6% (13th) |
| 83.3% (8th) | PK% | 85.7% (6th) |
| 0-1-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-0-0 |
Chances are good that he’ll be mentioning Cole Caufield’s name at some point as the forward is tied for the league lead with 10 goals. The winger has been held off the scoresheet just three times so far, and is currently riding a four-game goal-scoring streak. He is at least keeping Montreal’s games interesting and helping to hold them in the contests that don’t become blowouts.
Defensively, however, Caufield has struggled as his line with Nick Suzuki and whichever forward St-Louis tries on the right wing (most recently Emil Heineman) spends a lot of its time chasing the play in its own zone. Given that, it’s somewhat remarkable that Caufield has been so productive with so little zone time, but continued personal success requires him to improve his coverage in front of his net, and that statement can apply to all 17 of his fellow skaters as well.
Major improvement is required on defence, but tonight, facing another porous team, they don’t need to address it all at once to get back in the win column. The key is to make fewer errors than the Penguins do and let the offence carry them through the game. The players were already embarrassed by their bag skate on Friday, and surely that will have some effect on the attention the players pay to their defensive assignments in this game.
Pittsburgh hasn’t eclipsed three goals in a game since they played the Habs, following their early-season push to achieve milestones for Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. If Montreal can keep them to that total, there should be two points waiting for them at the end of the night, and a much less intense practice on Monday in Brossard.
