The Montreal Canadiens opened their preseason calendar last night, taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre. It took some time, and a mountain of penalties, before the Habs could find anything offensively, but the ultimately prevailed 2-1 in a shootout.
The first star of the night went to Owen Beck, who scored the team’s only regulation goal to permit the team to get to overtime.
Nice work by Sean Farrell to set this up, and Owen Beck gets a greasy one to tie this game at one#gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/xFkKOwqB1p
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) September 23, 2025
A slight correction to my tweet is necessary here, as it was Filip Mesar who set up the goal with some nice moves in the offensive zone. Frankly, Mesar might have been one of the most impressive players on the ice, which is an encouraging sign to see given how difficult last season was for him.
Pittsburgh had the better of the shot clock, particularly through the first two periods of action. Luckily for the Habs, both of their goaltenders in Samuel Montembeault and Jacob Fowler played well, which permitted them to come on strong later in the game.
Quite the set up by Ivan Demidov, no dice pic.twitter.com/tIHqVjvQ5P
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) September 23, 2025
Finishing abilities seemed just a tad behind where players would expect them to be in the regular season. Ivan Demidov set up a few opportunities like the one above, but nobody seemed to be able to capitalize. Demidov himself had a chance in the third period where he just couldn’t get full velocity on his one-timer.
In the end, the Habs just needed one good finishing move to get the win, and it came off the stick of Oliver Kapanen.
Quite the set up by Ivan Demidov, no dice pic.twitter.com/tIHqVjvQ5P
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) September 23, 2025
There is obviously still rust left to shake off, but there were certainly some intriguing performances. Have your say down in the comment section: who impressed you? Who left you wanting more?
Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be right back tonight as a different group of Habs players will take on the Philadelphia Flyers.
