CRANBERRY, Pa. -- After making it to the Stanley Cup Final last season, the Canadiens exactly aren't off to a hot start this year.
With a 4-12-2 record, the Canadiens' points percentage of .278 is the second-worst in the league, ahead of only the Coyotes. They enter Thursday's game against the Penguins in Montreal on a two-game losing streak with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games, identical to the Penguins' record in the same span.
The Canadiens are missing a lot of those pieces that helped carry them to the Final last season.
Shea Weber remains sidelined with multiple injuries and might not ever play again. Another defenseman, Joel Edmundson, has been out since the start of the season and won't be ready to return by Thursday. Forward Paul Byron is expected to be out until January after undergoing hip surgery. Goaltender Carey Price rejoined his teammates last week after voluntarily entering a residential treatment facility for substance use, and skated for the first time on Wednesday, still rehabbing his knee after his offseason surgery.
Forward Mathieu Perreault, an offseason pickup from Winnipeg, is also sidelined after an eye injury that necessitated surgery.
The Canadiens have struggled and have a depleted roster, but the Penguins are still expecting a challenge tomorrow in Montreal.
"They're a good, young, fast, skilled team," Bryan Rust said of the challenges the Canadiens present. "They didn't have the success they had last season as a fluke. They definitely earned it. They're a good team. Just like us, they haven't had the greatest start to the year, but that just shows that they're going to be desperate too. They're going to be out there working hard."
"They've got guys that are high-skilled, and they've got pride as well," Danton Heinen said. "I think we've got to go in there and turn things around here."
Mike Sullivan acknowledged the parity of the league, and the fine line that can be the difference between a win and a loss regardless of the kind of start a team is on. He said the Penguins' challenge is to "bring our very best game."
To do that, Sullivan told the team that they have to bring two things to Montreal:
1. Swagger
2. Urgency.
"When we bring those two things, we're pretty competitive team and we can compete against anyone," he said. "I think that's where our focus needs to be. We'll prepare our group for Montreal, they're a very good team. They've had their struggles as have we, and I would expect this to be a hard-fought game. We've got to make sure we bring those two things to Montreal."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• Sullivan won't be behind the bench in Montreal tomorrow due to Canadian border COVID restrictions. Travelers must be 14 days removed from their first positive test, and Sullivan is a day shy of that, so he'll join the team the following day. The coaching staff will function the same way they did while Sullivan was out with COVID, with Todd Reirden taking the lead and handling the forwards and Mike Vellucci handling the defense, with Sullivan calling in via WebEx during intermissions.
• Evgeni Malkin won't travel with the team yet on this Canadian road trip, but he continues to make progress.
"He's done really, really well to this point," Sullivan said of Malkin. "You know, I sat with our medical staff here on a number of occasions with respect to Geno, they have built in a schedule for him, some of it will be on the ice, some of it will be off the ice. There is a scheduled few days where we're going to give him a break because he's been training so hard for so long. And it's a tedious process, but we're really encouraged with the progress that he's making."
• With the exception of Malkin, everyone was in attendance for practice. They used the following line combinations, with extra forwards Sam Lafferty and Brian Boyle skating on defense with extra defenseman Mark Friedman:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Dominik Simon - Evan Rodrigues - Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel
Sam Lafferty/Brian Boyle - Mark Friedman
• The first power play unit was Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Jeff Carter, Jake Guentzel, Rust
• The second power play unit was John Marino/Mike Matheson, Kasperi Kapanen, Jason Zucker, Evan Rodrigues, Heinen
• The power play scored a goal Tuesday, with Guentzel's redirect from Rust ending a 28-opportunity scoreless streak:
"I do think it was a good play by Jake," Rust said after practice. "I think it's one of those plays that looks kind of flukey, but it's just reactionary to open that skate so it could bounce off. You could see him trying to reach for the puck to kind of bat at him, but it just went in first."
• It was a lighter mood at practice, lots of laughing and joking around. Spirits are high heading into Canada.
• Ty Hennes led the team in some skills work to start, before the five-on-five section. Players then worked on small-area 3-on-2 drills before moving into special teams work. Between each segment of the session, a handful of players would take part in a quick shootout drill.
• Players didn't seem too concerned about the news of the impending sale of the team.
"It was told to us briefly that there may be a sale of the team," Rust said. "I think we were told that all things are going to kind of be run the same, and I don't think there are any good or bad feelings about it. You can speculate, but until it's done, I don't think there's going to be too many real opinions coming out."
• Swedish defenseman Mattias Norlinder, the Canadiens' 2019 third-round pick, will make his NHL debut against the Penguins in Montreal. Norlinder, 21, is in his first season in North America and was scoreless with a minus-2 rating in three games with the AHL's Laval Rocket to start the season. At the Canadiens' practice, Norlinder said "When I grew up, (Crosby) was my idol. But tomorrow, he will not be my idol."
•The Canadiens used these lines and pairings in their practice in Montreal, per the team website:
Tyler Toffoli - Nick Suzuki - Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin - Ryan Poehling - Josh Anderson
Artturi Lehkonen - Jake Evans - Joel Armia
Michael Pezzetta - Ryan Poehling - Alex Belzile
Ben Chiarot - Jeff Petry
Alexander Romanov - Brett Kulak
Mattias Norlinder - David Savard
Sami Niku - Chris Wideman
