Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis won’t make any changes to his lineup for Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., Prime, RDS).
That means Samuel Montembeault will be in goal — like he was for Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre — while forward Michael Pezzetta and defenceman Jayden Struble will sit out for the third straight game. Montembeault comes into the game with a 2-0-0 record this season, along with a 0.50 goals-against average and a .986 save percentage.
The Canadiens have a 2-1-0 record, while the Penguins are 1-2-0. Tristan Jarry will start in goal for the Penguins.
The Penguins have won their last three games against the Canadiens and are 7-2-2 in the last 11 meetings between the teams. The Penguins have scored three or more goals in 10 of those 11 games.
“We all know what they bring,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said about the Penguins after Monday’s morning skate. “They’re a veteran team, a lot of guys that know how to play the game right. We got to be detailed, keep it simple and try to use our energy and aggressiveness to our advantage.”
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby enters the game one point shy of becoming only the 10th player in NHL history to record 1,600 regular-season points. Crosby has 592 goals and 1,007 assists in 1,275 career games. The nine players who have hit the 1,600-point mark are Wayne Gretzky (2,857), Jaromir Jagr (1,921), Mark Messier (1,887), Gordie Howe (1,850), Ron Francis (1,789), Marcel Dionne (1,771), Steve Yzerman (1,755), Mario Lemieux (1,723) and Joe Sakic (1,641).
The 37-year-old Crosby signed a two-year contract extension last month that runs through the 2026-27 season and has an annual salary-cap hit of US$8.7 million.
Crosby and Penguins defenceman Kris Letang have combined for 303 career regular-season goals, which is one short of tying Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings for the third-most in NHL history by a forward-defenceman duo. The leading duos are Gretzky and Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers (350) and Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins (306).
In 49 career games against the Canadiens, Crosby has 23-41-64 totals, while Letang has 9-26-35 totals in 44 career games against Montreal.
Canadiens rookie defenceman Lane Hutson is looking forward to playing against Crosby for the first time.
“I’m just really excited,” Hutson said after the morning skate. “He’s been so good for so long. You think about their lineup — Letang, (Evgeni) Malkin, all those guys — they’ve been great for so long. I’m excited to get on the ice with them and see how things go.”
After the Penguins practised Sunday, Crosby was asked by a reporter about Hutson.
“I skated with him last summer,” Crosby said. “I saw some sequences. He looks very comfortable. He’s a great skater, he controls the puck well, he makes a lot of plays. He seems very confident on the ice. It’s his first year and he’s already getting the opportunity to play in big situations.”
Hutson wasn’t aware of Crosby’s comments when told about them following Monday’s morning skate.
“That means the world to me,” said the 20-year-old Hutson, who has four assists in the first three games this season while averaging 19:55 of ice time. “It’s obviously nice to hear. But when we’re on the ice, we’re going to compete against each other, and it’s going to be a good game tonight.”