Canadiens at Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins are difficult enough to beat at home and the task became even more daunting for the Montreal Canadiens when they learned that starting goaltender Carey Price will be sidelined for Thursday night's matchup. Price, who capped a brilliant performance at the Winter Olympics with back-to-back shutouts to help Team Canada win the gold medal, aggravated a lower-body injury during practice and will miss two games. Montreal has lost five straight in Pittsburgh.
The Penguins own the best home record in the league and are 16-1-1 in their last 18 games at Consol Energy Arena despite a shootout loss in their final contest before the Olympic break. Seven Pittsburgh players competed in Sochi, Russia, not including coach Dan Bylsma, who guided the American team that came up on the short end of a 1-0 decision to Price and Canada in the semifinals. The Penguins face a grueling five-game road trip following Thursday's game, featuring visits to Chicago, San Jose and Anaheim.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TSN, RDS (Montreal), ROOT (Pittsburgh)
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (32-21-7): Montreal turned in a surprisingly flat effort coming out of the lengthy layoff but was fortunate to secure a point in Wednesday's 2-1 loss to visiting Detroit when captain Brian Gionta forced overtime by scoring with 28.7 seconds left in regulation. It was the fourth goal in the past seven games for Gionta, who endured a miserable stretch earlier in the season when he scored only once in 28 contests. Peter Budaj turned in a strong performance in place of Price with 28 saves against the Red Wings and will be back in net against Pittsburgh.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (40-15-3): Pittsburgh holds a commanding 16-point lead atop the Metropolitan Division and superstar captain Sidney Crosby is well on his way to his way to winning his second scoring title, but there are major injury concerns. Defenseman Paul Martin suffered a broken hand while playing for Team USA and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks and fellow blue-liner Kris Letang's return is uncertain after he suffered a stroke at the end of January. "Hopefully there won't be any more injuries," Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero said in taking note of next week's trade deadline. "Adding a defenseman for any team is going to be difficult."
OVERTIME
1. Pittsburgh has won four of the last five overall meetings with Montreal, including a 5-1 drubbing at home on Jan. 22.
2. The Canadiens have surrendered only eight goals in their last eight games, going 5-1-2 in that span.
3. The Penguins own the league's best power play (25.4 percent) and second-ranked penalty-killing unit (87.0).