With a win against an archrival in the books to start the season, the Montreal Canadiens will continue their season-opening road trip, taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Last season featured a turning of the tables against a team that's still a formidable contender.
They finished 2-0-1 against the Penguins in 2025-26, with a points percentage of .833. Taking this head-to-head series followed two losing seasons, including going winless against them the season prior.
Now, they'll be tasked with carrying that momentum into Saturday.
Breaking a long cold streak
It's been some time since the Habs have won the season series in consecutive seasons against the Penguins. To put it into perspective, they've never done it while up against Sidney Crosby.
They came out with a winning edge in five consecutive seasons from 1999-00 to 2003-04. Since then, they've typically avoided dropping the series by coming out even.
With the Canadiens expectations on the rise with this young core and fast-tempo offense, this could be when a year-to-year streak starts to build.
Why to feel good about a winning season series
Offense is a major point of confidence.
Last season, the Canadiens finished seventh in the NHL in goals scored with 279. It was the first time since 2012-13 that they finished Top 10 in goals scored. If you go back to their last non-lockout shortened season achieving this, it's the 2007-08 season.
Both of these aforementioned performances are behind two of the last three times they've scored double-digit goals as a team in a season against Pittsburgh.
It doesn't ensure that they'll come out on top, but it's a testament to how far this offense came last season.
What else needs to done?
It'll be interesting to see how this group contains Evgeni Malkin. He didn't play against the Habs last season and that likely helped.
Malkin is older and is starting to miss time, but when he's on the ice, he's still a good hockey player. He averaged more than a point per game when available last season for the first time since 2022-23.
One extra player can tip the scales, but you probably don't have to tell an NHL team that. They know they've got to be ready.
Another key will be winning with Jakub instead of Jacob.
Some of Jacob Fowler's strongest performances when he saw action in the NHL last year were against the Penguins. He posted a .971 save percentage and even picked up his first career shutout.
Right now, Fowler is in Laval, and I doubt they'd bring him up for one game after not including him on the opening night roster.
I'm not saying you have to be worried about Dobes; far from it. It's more that head coach Martin St. Louis doesn't have the option to decide that X worked last year, so they'll just do X again.
They'll have a few days to prep. It gives them ample time to do their homework and see how the defense can shut them down early and often in front of Dobes.
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