The Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins haven't crossed paths too many times, which is unfortunate considering the enormity of some of the Penguins' legends. Mario Lemieux playing a big playoff series in his home province would have been memorable, as would have been a couple more of Sidney Crosby playing his childhood team.
The Canadiens own the all-time series against these teams, holding a record of 127-72-23-5. The teams already played twice during the 2024-25 season, with the Penguins winning both games 6-3 and 3-1. They'll play one more time on December 12.
Old friend Lars Eller led the way for the Penguins in the first matchup, tallying two goals, while Evgeni Malkin added a goal and two assists. The Penguins took an early 2-0 lead, but the Canadiens rallied back with goals from Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Emil Heineman. However, Pittsburgh scored four unanswered to steal the victory.
It was a much cleaner game on November 2 when they played, but Crosby scored two goals to get an early lead and the Canadiens couldn't recover. Christian Dvorak scored their only goal.
Canadiens-Penguins Playoff History
The Canadiens and Penguins first playoff series was in 1998, a year after Lemieux first retired. Jaromir Jagr was the new leader of the Penguins, and he didn't disappoint. Pittsburgh grabbed the second seed while the Canadiens had an abysmal 37-32-13 record and finished seventh.
However, Montreal rallied to win the series in six games, but were swept by the Buffalo Sabres in the next round. Mark Recchi led the way for Montreal with eight points.
Crosby finally got his Canadiens matchup in 2010 when they faced off in the Eastern Conference Semifinal. Pittsburgh were looking for back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Canadiens persevered again despite being the lower seed, and won 5-2 in Game 7 to advance.
The Canadiens also defeated the Penguins in the COVID-19 bubble during the summer of 2020. Once again, the Canadiens were the underdogs in a playoff series with the Penguins but found a way to win the series and advance to the next round.