Preview And Lines: Struble Watch, Montembeault Starts

The Montreal Canadiens (2-1-0) are set to host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins (1-2-0) on Monday night. The puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET.

Head coach Martin St-Louis was surely happy to see his team emerge with a dominant 4-1 win against the Senators on Saturday night, as wins in Ottawa have been few and far between in the last few seasons. Regardless how well the Senators are doing in the overall standings, they approach games against the Canadiens with a playoff mentality, a perspective that has served them quite well.

The Canadiens were the ones to start Saturday’s game with a sense of urgency, setting the tone rather than allowing the Senators to control the momentum of the game. Sniper Cole Caufield was a crucial cog in the offensive wheel, scoring two goals in the one-sided win. Rookie Emil Heineman also found the back of the net, aided along by fellow freshman Lane Hutson.

Speaking of Hutson, we’re starting to run out of ways to describe the 20-year-old defenceman. Until ‘ridiculawesome’ is adopted as an official word, we will have to rely on the many highlights produced whenever Hutson is on the ice.

Emil Heineman scores his first goal in the NHL!

Great work by Hutson to drive the play up the ice quickly. He drew the defenders close and then recovered the puck that was being cleared. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/NPj9mACNL3

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) October 12, 2024

There was a chance defenceman Jayden Struble would take part in his first NHL game this season, but both Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron will be in the lineup, which suggests Struble will have to wait.

On Topic: Top 5 Things We’ve Learned From Lane Hutson’s Excellent NHL Start

This will be the first time the Canadiens will feature in the NHL’s Monday-night lineup that will be aired on Amazon Prime Video. As it stands, Monday is used as a day to process all the action from the weekend, as well as setting up all the upcoming events in the week, which makes it a questionable choice when it comes to scheduling more games. On that note, I also understand why the league would want to establish an event that could potentially emulate Monday Night Football’s popularity.

The Penguins arrive in Montreal with three games under their belt, including Saturday night’s 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Even though he’s 37 years old, which is the equivalent to being Methuselah in a sports setting, Crosby continues to be a dominant presence. That’s par for the course for a generational talent, but it certainly bucks the age trend in modern sports. Crosby has three assists so far this season, while fellow aging star Evgeni Malkin has produced four assists of his own.

For the view from the other side of the rink, we invite you to visit our sister site, Pittsburgh Hockey Now.

Montreal Canadiens Projected Lineup

Pittsburgh Penguins Projected Lineup

Beauvillier – Crosby – Rust

Bunting – Malkin – Rakell

O’Connor – Eller – McGroarty

Hayes – Glass – Acciari

Grzelcyk – Letang

Pettersson – Karlsson

Ivany – Graves

Jarry

How to Watch The Montreal Canadiens vs. The Pittsburgh Penguins, October 14, 2024.

Game 4 of the regular season will be aired on RDS and Amazon Prime Video. Once the game is over, an instant recap complete with highlights will be available on Montreal Hockey Now.