With only three games left before the Christmas break, the Montreal Canadiens will host the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre on Saturday night before heading to Pennsylvania for the second part of the back-to-back on Sunday.
The big story for the weekend, aside from the fact that Kent Hughes brought back Phillip Danault, will be Sidney Crosby’s chase for the Penguins' all-time scoring lead. As things stand, the Penguins’ captain sits on point behind Mario Lemieux with 1,722 points; the “kid” needed 1,385 games to get there, while Lemieux recorded 1,723 points in just 915 games. In other words, in Saturday night’s tilt in Montreal, Crosby could tie the Montreal native Lemieux’s point total or even set a new record.
Pittsburgh was shut out in its last game against the Ottawa Senators, but Crosby has an excellent record against the Canadiens with 70 points in 53 career games. Tying or breaking Lemieux’s record in the province where Crosby played his junior hockey would be a great scenario.
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The Penguins have been struggling of late; they are 2-4-4 in their last 10 games and are currently 12th in the Eastern Conference. They are still without Evgeni Malkin, who’s on injured reserve, and Kris Letang is having an awful season, becoming the target of the Pens’ fans' ire with only 16 points in 33 games with two more years left on his contract and a full no-movement clause.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens are 5-4-1 and still struggling with consistency. Martin St-Louis has yet to confirm who the starter will be for the tilt, but both goalies should see a game, given that the Habs are playing two games in two days. Jakub Dobes has never taken on the Pens, but he had a good game on Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Czech netminder has a 12-5-2 record with a 2.91 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage this season. As for Jacob Fowler, he made his NHL debut a little over a week ago against the Pens, and he signed a 4-2 win, saving 36 of the 38 shots he faced for a .947 SV.
As for the Penguins, they recently traded Tristan Jarry to the Edmonton Oilers for Stuart Skinner. The latter has played only one game since the trade, and he allowed five goals on 22 shots against his former team. However, he has a 4-1-0 record against the Canadiens with a 2.75 GAA and a .898 save percentage. He’s 11-9-4 on the season with a 2.93 GAA and a .887 SV. As for Arturs Silovs, he has never taken on the Habs in his young career, and he has 4-5-6 record with a 3.26 GAA and a .890 SV on the season.
Up front, Brendan Gallagher is the Canadiens’ most productive player against the Pens with 16 points in 32 games, followed by Nick Suzuki, who has 12 points in 16 games and Mike Matheson with 10 points in 20 games. The defenseman missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, but he did skate on Friday while the team was off.
The Canadiens have acquired forward Phillip Danault from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 20, 2025
News release ↓ #GoHabsGohttps://t.co/u7S9L9pJnb
At the other end of the ice, Crosby is unsurprisingly the Pens most productive player against the Habs with 70 points in 53 games, as mentioned above. Erik Karlsson comes in second place with 43 points in 53 games, followed by Letang with 40 points in 48 games.
Pittsburgh has won six of the last 10 duels between the two sides, including a whooping 9-2 triumph the last time they met in Montreal. Still, the Habs have won the sole meeting this season, and the Penguins have lost their last seven games, not all in regulation, but still, they haven’t pocketed two points since December 4.
The referees will be Peter MacDougall and Frederic L’Ecuyer, with Devin Berg and Andrew Smith acting as linesmen.
The Canadiens will be celebrating Christmas at the Bell Centre tonight. The first 7,500 fans through the doors will receive a Christmas ornament exclusively designed for the event, and there will be a tailgate at La Cour Rio Tinto, where you can grab a free hot chocolate from the Tim Hortons food truck. If you’re watching the game at home, it’s scheduled for 7:00 PM, and you can catch it on TVAS, CITY, SNE, and SN-PIT.
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