Montreal Canadiens: Staying off the highlight reel against the Pittsburgh Penguins

The Montreal Canadiens are in Pittsburgh for the final time this season for another game of 60-minutes against some of the league’s best.

The Montreal Canadiens had one of their better performances from everyone the last time they faced the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Habs found themselves down 2-0 but battled back with three goals of their own thanks to Jonathan Drouin, Nikita Scherbak, and Jacob de La Rose. Unfortunately, the Penguins answered back with three goals of their own to win the game 5-3. One of those included the Sidney Crosby baseball extravaganza that had the hockey world talking for days.

The Habs will be hoping for a different result but similar effort tonight in Pittsburgh. The word effort has been a delicate one in the last few days, especially after the comments from Paul Byron after yesterday’s practice. However, Claude Julien mentioned that he intends to make sure everyone on the team are firing at full throttle and not just a selected few. Montreal seems to play well against top teams in the league, so this will most likely be one of those high octane games Julien is looking for.

Julien revealed after morning skate that there is only a single change to the forward lines with Byron Froese getting the healthy scratch. Daniel Carr is drawing back in, most likely on Michael McCarron‘s right, after sitting out of the team’s 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Kerby Rychel, who was called up from the Laval Rocket Friday afternoon, won’t be in tonight’s lineup either. However, he may make his debut with the Montreal Canadiens in Sunday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.

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On the backend, David Schlemko is making his return to the team. The 30-year-old hasn’t played since March 3rd but will be taking Mike Reilly‘s spot leaving Jordie Benn to line with Jeff Petry on the top pair. Reilly has been steady on the Habs blue line averaging nearly 20 minutes a night and adding seven assists on top of that. But someone had to come out for Schlemko, and it looks like he was the name.

Pittsburgh is well established in the Metropolitan Division, but are fighting to get that ‘X’ beside their name in the standings. Additionally, they still have Columbus and Philadelphia behind them, who are close enough to knock them down to a wild-card spot. The Penguins haven’t had a regulation game since, ironically, their last game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Crosby has been hot in those five games though with a goal in each of them and three assists. Evgeni Malkin is also continuing an incredible season as he recorded his 93rd point of the season against the Detroit Red Wings.

It’s obviously far different in scale, but Habs players are hitting milestones as well. Brendan Gallagher scored his 30th goal of the season against the Red Wings (more irony) while Alex Galchenyuk has eclipsed his totals in both categories from last year. Paul Byron is also close to having back-to-back 20-goal seasons after getting his 19th in that same game.

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Carey Price will be the man behind in front of the net after recording his first win since February 4th. At this point of the season, it’s all about getting your head in the right place. Price did that with a good performance against Detroit and he, as well as the rest of the Montreal Canadiens, will be looking to do that in Pittsburgh.