Montreal Canadiens vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Pick & Prediction DECEMBER 13th 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins head to Montreal on Wednesday coming off something of a breakthrough game.

Now they’ll look to strike while the power play is hot when they play for the second night in a row as they visit the Canadiens.

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh not only halted a four-game losing streak (0-2-2) and two-game regulation losing skid with a 4-2 win at home against the Arizona Coyotes, but the Penguins also burst what had been a big, ugly, boiling bubble by going 2-for-5 on the power play, including Jeff Carter’s go-ahead goal in the third.

Pittsburgh had been in an 0-for-37 power-play drought over 13-plus games with a man-advantage.

“To get two is huge,” said Penguins winger Jake Guentzel, whose game-opening goal came on the power play and broke the streak. “The biggest thing is we can’t relax now that we’ve got one. We’ve got to get some momentum here. We’ve got to build off this and keep going.”

The Penguins had tweaked and tweaked their power-play personnel and strategy for more than a month, trying to produce a goal. Guentzel said it came down to the simplest thing.

“We’ve just got to shoot the puck,” he said. “Nothing breaks coverage down more than shooting the puck. Both goals kind of came from that. We can learn from that.”

Carter, who also had a short-handed goal Tuesday, echoed that, but in a more colorful way.

“Sometimes you just throw the puck into the (bleep),” Carter said.

Scoring in general had been sparse for the Penguins, who had netted a single goal in three games in a row before Tuesday, but getting production on special teams solves a lot.

Montreal, meanwhile, is coming off a 2-1 loss Sunday against the Nashville Predators.

In a theme that would sound familiar to the Penguins, Montreal went 0-for-5 on the power play against Nashville.

The Canadiens have lost two of three and have a total of three goals in those three games. Overall, their goal differential is minus-21, worst in the Eastern Conference.

“Obviously, you’re going to have ups and downs throughout the season,” Montreal winger Cole Caufield said. “We’ve got to find a way to get out of it and find ways to create more.

“Through struggles you can find answers, and I think we’re just trying to find those right now.”

The Canadiens showed some changes in the lineup against Nashville.

Veteran defenseman David Savard was back after a hand injury that had sidelined him since the fifth game of the season, and forward Michael Pezzetta returned after missing one game because of an upper-body injury.

Forward Tanner Pearson sat out after sustaining an upper-body injury the previous game that will keep him out at least a month, and defenseman Gustav Lindstrom was a healthy scratch.

Savard got the injury blocking a shot but said he isn’t shying from that task now — he had five blocked shots against the Predators.

“Blocking shots makes big plays, and sometimes it gives you momentum, too,” Savard told the Athletic. “I’m not going to change who I am. That’s how I’ve been playing my whole life. I’m excited to be back and block some shots.”

–Field Level Media