Canadiens Visit Penguins Saturday in Pittsburgh's Home Opener

Montreal and Pittsburgh, both 1-0-0, meet at 7:00 p.m. Eastern at PPG Paints Arena, with local coverage on SNE, TVAS and SportsNet Pittsburgh plus an ESPN+ stream.

The Montreal Canadiens visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, with both clubs carrying 1-0-0 records into Pittsburgh's home opener. Face-off is 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Local broadcasts are on SNE, TVAS and SportsNet Pittsburgh, and the game streams on ESPN+.

Montreal opened its season Tuesday with a 3-2 road victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, a night that doubled as Gavin McKenna's NHL debut. The Canadiens came out slowly in that game and want a more energetic start against Pittsburgh.

Montreal is largely running it back with the core that reached last season's Eastern Conference Finals, built around top-line forwards Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. The headline offseason addition is Chris Kreider, who scored 20 goals in 47 career games against Pittsburgh during his New York Rangers tenure and has taken the first-line spot that used to belong to Juraj Slafkovsky, who now skates with Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov.

Other projected lines from Friday's practice put Alexandre Texier with Phillip Danault and Kirby Dach, and Zack Bolduc with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson; the defense pairs were Mike Matheson with Noah Dobson, Lane Huton with Alexandre Carrier, and Jayden Struble with Arber Xhehaj. Oliver Kapanen is day-to-day, Kaiden Guhle is on injured reserve with a groin injury, and rookies Adam Engstrom and Florian Xhekaj, both Opening Night roster picks, are potential scratches after sitting out in Toronto.

In goal, Jakub Dobes starts his second season as Montreal's full-time starter after a rookie year that ended in the conference finals. His opening-night victory was the 37th of his career, a total only three goaltenders in franchise history had topped through 60 career games, leaving him with one of the best win rates the club has seen. He recovered after an early Maple Leafs goal in Toronto. The projected group lists Dobes and Sam Montembeault, while Montreal also weighs turning to Jacob Fowler, who was solid as Dobes' backup during his own rookie season.

Pittsburgh, which opened its season with a win over Philadelphia, owns a 31-17-10 all-time record in home openers. The Penguins dropped last season's series against Montreal 1-2, producing just two goals across two regulation defeats before salvaging a shootout win in December 2025. The week ahead is demanding: Winnipeg at home Monday, a Friday trip to Washington, then a back-to-back at Columbus and home against Dallas.

Pittsburgh's projected forward lines from Friday had Nick Robertson with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell; Egor Chinakhov, Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin together; Ville Koivunen with Hendrix Lapierre and Filip Hallander; and Connor Dewar with Ben Kindel and Andrei Kuzmenko, both carrying question marks. The defense pairs were Declan Carlile with Erik Karlsson, Sam Girard with Kaeden Korczak and Trevor van Riemsdyk with Kris Letang, with Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov as the listed goalies. The top power-play unit featured Karlsson, Novak, Rakell, Crosby and Kindel, with Letang, Chinakhov, Kuzmenko, Lapierre and Malkin on the second.

On the injury front, Bryan Rust (upper body) sat out the opener and has not practiced, Blake Lizotte (lower body) has been absent from practice despite playing 13 minutes against the Flyers, and Ryan Graves and Justin Brazeau are on injured reserve. Kuzmenko, who set up Malkin for a goal during Friday's power-play work, rejoined the team after the death of his father, a return that bumped Elmer Soderblom from even-strength rushes and onto a potential-scratch list with Rutger McGroarty, David Gustafsson, Ilya Solovyov and Lizotte. Kindel, previously listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury, has practiced two days in a row, including work with line rushes and the top power play, though his availability is unconfirmed.

Next up, the Winnipeg Jets visit the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, October 4 at 1:00 p.m. EDT at Little Caesars Arena, with coverage on NHL Net and DSN.