The Montreal Canadiens have been held to one goal or fewer in their three regulation losses, but they should get a boost Thursday when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins with the return of Michael Cammalleri. The winger has missed Montreal’s last three games with a leg laceration.
Pittsburgh won’t be too excited to see him back. Cammalleri had seven goals in the playoff series versus the Penguins, then had three goals and an assist against them last season to help the Canadiens go 3-1-0 in the series. He missed the lone loss due to a viral infection.
Montreal could especially use some help on its power play. The Canadiens converted 19.7 percent of its chances last season – seventh in the league – but are 2 for 21 thus far after going 0 for 5 in a 3-1 loss to Buffalo on Tuesday.
Despite his team’s third straight loss, coach Jacques Martin wasn’t too upset after watching Montreal outshoot the Sabres 41-22.
“To me, we played the game the way we needed to play,” Martin told the league’s official website. “We put pucks behind their (defense), we forechecked, we created chances. But sometimes you don’t control the result.”
Goaltender Carey Price won both of his starts at Consol Energy Center last season, posting a 1.00 goals-against average. The Penguins haven’t been shut out since Price beat them 3-0 in Pittsburgh on March 12.
At full strength, the Penguins have an arsenal of stars that’s arguably as deep as any in the NHL.
Right now, they’ll simply settle for a lineup with anyone who’s healthy.
Pittsburgh (4-2-2) knew it would begin the season without forwards Sidney Crosby and Dustin Jeffrey along with defenseman Brooks Orpik, but it’s also been forced to play without forwards Evgeni Malkin (knee) and Tyler Kennedy (post-concussion symptoms) in the early going.
The Penguins also had to make do without Letang on Tuesday in Minnesota – their league-high eighth game in 13 days – after he was handed a two-game suspension for a boarding penalty he received in Winnipeg a night earlier.
Even Brian Strait, who was called up earlier Tuesday, left with an upper-body injury against the Wild, but Pittsburgh managed to stop its losing streak at three. James Neal, who had two goals in 27 games after coming over from Dallas in February, scored his sixth of the season as the undermanned Penguins beat the Wild 4-2.
“It seems some bad luck keeps happening to this team. We keep battling through it and I think we are doing a really good job,” defenseman Zbynek Michalek told the team’s official website. “We are not a fancy team right now by any means. We just try to do the dirty work, play good defensively and rely on our goaltending.”
Marc-Andre Fleury should be back in net after Brent Johnson got the nod Tuesday, but who – if any – of the team’s walking wounded can return is up in the air.
Coach Dan Bylsma said Tuesday one of Pittsburgh’s injured players could return against the Canadiens (1-3-1), but wouldn’t go into more specifics. Malkin, who has played three games as he deals with lingering soreness from ACL surgery, seems the likeliest.
Letang, who had three goals as the Penguins lost to Montreal in seven games in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals, will finish his suspension.