TLDR: Both of these clubs won their openers on the road, and the books still can't separate them. Montreal comes to PPG Paints Arena on Saturday, October 3, and the board has it as an even game.
Montreal, a conference finalist last spring, visits Pittsburgh after both clubs won their openers on the road, the Penguins 7-0 in Philadelphia and the Canadiens 3-2 in Toronto. Pittsburgh's depth scoring covered a long injury list against a Flyers team that didn't compete, so Saturday tests whether that holds up against a deeper opponent. The board rates it a coin flip.
−The blowout came against a Flyers team that didn't show up
Pittsburgh played the louder opener. The Penguins went into Philadelphia and won 7-0, the worst season-opening loss in Flyers history. Seven different players scored. Nicholas Robertson had 2 in his first game as a Penguin, Filip Hallander finished with a goal and 2 assists, and Evgeni Malkin also scored. Arturs Silovs made 19 saves for the shutout. Dan Muse said afterward that he wants scoring from the whole lineup, and he got it on night 1.
Montreal's opener was tighter, and it was in Toronto. William Nylander scored 48 seconds in. Josh Anderson tied it, Zachary Bolduc put the Canadiens ahead with a shot from the slot, and Alexandre Carrier scored the winner late in the third. Jakub Dobes made 25 saves, while Bobrovsky stopped 21 at the other end. This is a team coming off a run to the Eastern Conference Final, and it looked like that team. Neither club has announced a starter for Saturday, so treat any goalie matchup as a projection until morning skate.
Both teams are off until puck drop at 7:00 PM ET, so nobody shows up tired or with a goalie already used. That puts the focus on the lineups. Pittsburgh's opener happened with a long list of regulars out, and Montreal's depth on the back end has a hole in it too.
The Penguins' injury list is long. Bryan Rust, Justin Brazeau, Andrei Kuzmenko, Ben Kindel and Tristan Broz are all on injured reserve, and Ryan Graves is out indefinitely on defense. That's 4 forwards you'd expect in the top 9 and a regular defenseman. The newcomers covered for all of it against a Flyers team that didn't show up. Doing it again against a Montreal club that just went to the conference final is a harder ask.
Montreal is missing Kaiden Guhle, who is on IR with a groin injury, and Oliver Kapanen is day-to-day at center. Losing Guhle means the rest of the defense has to cover more minutes. Kapanen's status decides how the bottom of the lineup looks. It's still a lighter list than Pittsburgh's. Both of these teams have 1 strong result so far, and Saturday will show which one says more about them.
