Canadiens Lineup

Harvey-Pinard – Nick Suzuki – Jesse Ylonen

Denis Gurianov  – Jonathan Drouin – Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick – Chris Tierney – Mike Hoffman

Michael Pezzetta – Alex Belzile – Anthony Richard

Mike Matheson – Johnathan Kovacevic

Kaiden Guhle – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron

Sam Montembeault – Jake Allen

Chris Wideman

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder), Arber Xhekaj (upper-body), Kirby Dach (lower-body), Joel Armia (illness), Christian Dvorak (lower-body), Jordan Harris (lower-body)

Game Report

It’s been a familiar refrain from the head coach since the start of the season: playing the right way trumps results.

So what can Marty St. Louis be thinking about tonight’s contest? The Canadiens didn’t play well, in fact, they were dominated in this game. Montreal was opportunistic taking advantage of shoddy Pittsburgh goaltending.

But it was an important win for the emotional state of the players, setting aside a seven game losing streak and giving the team a lift as they begin a short three-game road trip. So in this case, it appears that the result took precedence over the process.

This game started much the same as the match against the Avalanche. The Penguins scored just 21 seconds into the game and had a 2-0 lead before the match was five minutes old.

But the Canadiens scored four unanswered goals before the first intermission. St. Louis claimed his team took control. Not to disagree with the coach, but with four goals on seven shots in the opening frame, it had far more to do with a tough start from Tristan Jarry.

Casey DeSmith took over in the Pittsburgh goal to start the second period. DeSmith faced only 13 shots in the final 40 minutes. The Penguins had an impressive 21 high-danger scoring chances; DeSmith faced just four HDSC from Canadiens sticks in his two periods of work.

By the close of his post-game presser, St. Louis was talking about the results being important for morale. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the Canadiens weathered the storm and left Pennsylvania with a much-needed win.

Up Next

Plus

Minus

▼  Mike Matheson, Jonathan Kovacevic, Nick Suzuki, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, David Savard, Alex Belzile, Michael Pezzetta, Chris Tierney, Rem Pitlick

Game Preview