Pittsburgh Penguins look to christen new rink with a win against the Montreal Canadiens
Both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens started their seasons on a low note by losing their opening games. The Penguins, who unveiled their new arena to fans by having Penguins legend Mario Lemieux pour melted ice water from the old Mellon
Arena onto the new rink, will be looking to get a first victory in their new home when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
How they match up
Neither side got scoring from their stars on Thursday night, but the Montreal Canadiens had be happy with the play of two of their off-season acquisitions, Dustin Boyd and Jeff Helpern, who each scored goals.
Pittsburgh's dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were both held off the scoreboard on Thursday as Pittsburgh got their goals from the unlikely sources of Tyler Kennedy and defenceman Alex Goligoski.
The Canadiens will hope to get a lift with the return of Mike Cammalleri who was forced to miss the Canadiens' season opener because of a suspension. The decision was handed down by the NHL for Cammalleri's slash on the New York Islanders' Nino Niederreiter
during the pre-season.
Previous meetings
The Pittsburgh Penguins will have more on their minds than just getting a first win in their new rink as they won't soon forget the four-games-to-three defeat they suffered at the hands of the Canadiens in last season's play-offs.
Despite being down in the series three games to two to the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Canadiens rallied back to take the series in seven games.
Last spring's remarkable play-off run for the Canadiens was due in large part to the heroics of Jaroslav Halak who was traded to the St. Louis Blues over the summer in exchange for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz
What it means is that the Penguins will not have to contend with the one factor that undid them last time around, and they will be hoping that it yields a different result.
In game two of last season's series between these two teams, Jordan Staal injured his foot when he collided with Canadiens rookie defenceman P.K. Subban. Staal ended up returning to finish the series but has still not finished recovering from the injury
and will be out for at least another month.
What to expect
Despite having just recovered from the flu, Carey Price had a decent game for the Montreal Canadiens in their 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night. The 23-year-old seems determined to silence his critics and put in a decent season of hard
work between the pipes.
In many ways the Penguins appeared to be the better team in their opener, despite losing to the Flyers, and they will feel like they simply came up against a hot goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky.
It just seems that the Penguins have more to play for in this contest, and the extra motivation should be enough to get them a victory whether it's Crosby and Malkin that get the goals or not.
Prediction: Penguins win 4-1.
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