The Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens are both in the bottom portion of the Eastern Conference standings but appear to be headed in opposite directions ahead of a matchup in Montreal on Thursday.
The Penguins have lost two of their past three games while the Canadiens have won three of their last four.
Pittsburgh’s most recent game was a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at home on Tuesday night.
“I didn’t think we were as stiff on the puck,” Penguins’ coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought we hung onto pucks more in the offensive zone. I thought we could’ve controlled territory a little bit more and forced them to have to defend us a little bit more.”
Pittsburgh fell behind early and found itself down 3-0 early in the second period before pulling to within one by the end of the period. Colorado then scored three in the third period.
Penguins fans even resorted to booing the team during a power play in the second period.
“I think there’s been some times this season when we deserved it,” Pittsburgh superstar center and captain Sidney Crosby said of the negative crowd reaction. “I don’t think tonight was one of them.”
After averaging more than a point per game in his first 19 seasons, Crosby — now 37 — has not reached that level so far this season with eight goals and 19 assists for 27 points in 30 games.
Crosby’s last goal, which came on Nov. 23, was the milestone 600th of his career.
Despite going without a goal in the past seven games, Crosby still leads the team in points. Fellow veteran center Evgeni Malkin, 38, is Pittsburgh’s second-leading scorer with 25 points (six goals, 19 assists). Early in the season, he reached 500 career goals, a feat only 47 other players in the history of the NHL have accomplished.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks at home on Monday.
Patrik Laine had a goal and an assist for Montreal in the win. Laine, who also scored in the shootout, has three power-play goals in four games since returning on Dec. 3 from a knee injury suffered during the preseason.
“His (Laine’s) shot is so hard to stop for a goalie,” said Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault, who made 27 saves. “So, on their side, they’ve got to respect that.”
Kirby Dach’s goal 4:36 into the third period tied the game at 2 — just 11 seconds after the Ducks’ Troy Terry’s goal made it 2-1 — and sent it into overtime. It was Dach’s first goal since Oct. 26, snapping a 19-game dry spell.
Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal mishandled a puck behind the net, so it was wide open for Dach in front.
“It’s kind of the only way one was going to go in, I guess, was to have the whole open net in front of me,” Dach said. “So it was nice. ‘Slaf’ (Juraj Slafkovsky) made a good play and it’s definitely encouraging.”
Center and captain Nick Suzuki is Montreal’s leading scorer with 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 28 games. Right wing Cole Caufield is the Canadiens’ goal leader with 17 and is second with 25 points in 28 games.
–Field Level Media