The Canadiens are home tonight, and they arrive on a roll. The Pittsburgh Penguins visit the Bell Centre on Saturday, October 31, with puck drop at 7:00 PM ET. Montreal is 8-3-2 with 18 points and has won four straight, all of them on the road: 4-1 in Chicago, 2-1 in Winnipeg, 2-0 in St. Louis and 5-2 in Dallas on Thursday. The Canadiens outscored opponents 13-4 on that trip, and tonight is their first home game since October 20. Pittsburgh is 5-6-2 with 12 points, is 1-5-1 on the road, and is coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to Utah on Thursday.

One Change: Beck In, Xhekaj Out

The lines are the same as Thursday in Dallas with one exception. See the Lineup Tonight page for every card and stat. Owen Beck takes Florian Xhekaj’s place on the fourth line with Jake Evans and Kirby Dach. The defense pairs are unchanged. With Suzuki still out, Slafkovský, Newhook and Caufield stay together on the first line, and Kreider, Kapanen and Anderson remain the second line.

Group	Players
Line 1	Slafkovský – Newhook – Caufield
Line 2	Kreider – Kapanen – Anderson
Line 3	Texier – Danault – Bolduc
Line 4	Beck – Evans – Dach
Defense	Hutson – Dobson
Defense	Guhle – Carrier
Defense	A. Xhekaj – Engström
Goalies	Fowler (starter), Dobeš
Scratches	F. Xhekaj

The fourth line is the only forward group that moves, and the change is simple for a coach. Owen Beck brings energy and a straightforward forecheck, and Jake Evans and Kirby Dach have been the stable part of that line for weeks. The job for the trio is to get pucks in deep, play short shifts and stay out of the penalty box against a Pittsburgh team that scores on the power play.

Fowler Gets the Net

Fowler starts, and Dobeš is the backup after winning in Dallas on Thursday, where he stopped 17 of 19 shots. Fowler has been the story of the road trip. He is 6-1-0 with a .942 save percentage and a 1.54 goals-against average in seven games, and he stopped all 46 shots in the 2-0 win in St. Louis on Tuesday. Before that he made 33 saves in Winnipeg and 20 in Chicago. The Canadiens have given him a lot of work, so the first question tonight is whether the defense in front of him can shorten the shot list.

Know Your Opponent: The Penguins

This is a team with high-end names and uneven results. Erik Karlsson leads Pittsburgh with 13 points (2 goals, 11 assists) in 13 games and plays 23:19 a night. Evgeni Malkin has 6 goals and 11 points in 12 games, Nick Robertson also has 6 goals and a plus-8 rating, and Tommy Novak has 8 points. Sidney Crosby has 3 goals and 7 points in 13 games and is minus-8. Kris Letang has 6 assists and plays 20:12 a night.

In goal, Sergei Murashov starts for Pittsburgh. He is 0-3-1 with a .883 save percentage and a 3.50 goals-against average in four games, so he is still looking for his first win of the season. Arturs Silovs (5-3-1, .889, 2.98 in nine games) played Thursday and took the overtime loss, stopping 31 of 35 shots. The Penguins are also short in the lineup: Bryan Rust (3 goals and 2 assists in seven games), defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Ryan Graves are out with injuries. Pittsburgh scores 3.31 goals per game, the same as Montreal, but allows 3.38, and that gap is why the Canadiens’ 2.92 goals against per game matters in this matchup.

Special Teams Will Matter

Pittsburgh’s power play is at 20.0 percent and its penalty kill at 84.4 percent, and the Canadiens’ power play is the weak spot at 10.3 percent. Montreal’s penalty kill is at 82.7 percent. Special teams mattered in the first meeting: the Penguins scored twice on the power play on October 3 and won 6-5 in overtime. The first unit is projected as Caufield, Kirby Dach, Slafkovský, Bolduc and Hutson, and the second unit as Newhook, Kreider, Kapanen, Texier and Dobson. The penalty kill pairs Danault and Anderson with Guhle and Carrier, and Jake Evans and Newhook with Hutson and Dobson.

Injury Updates

Mike Matheson is out about two weeks with a lower-body injury, which is why Guhle and Carrier stay together on pair two and Arber Xhekaj plays with Adam Engström. Samuel Montembeault is day to day. Suzuki is out with a left-hand injury from blocking a shot against San Jose, and he skated hard today. Demidov is walking without his boot and is still on injured reserve. The Injury Report page is updated with every change.

History and What Comes Next

Montreal is 6-6-4 against Pittsburgh since 2021-22, with a 50-65 goal difference in those 16 games. The Canadiens lost the last two in extra time. In the October 3 game in Pittsburgh they trailed 5-2 after two periods, scored three times in the third (Cole Caufield, Chris Kreider and Ivan Demidov, the last two within 24 seconds) to tie it at 5-5, and lost on Novak’s overtime goal. Caufield scored twice in that game. The Canadiens are back at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, November 3 against Winnipeg, then host Utah on Thursday and visit Toronto on Saturday, November 7.

The plan for tonight is clear: a fast start in front of the home crowd, no penalty parade against a power play that has punished them once already, and goaltending that keeps giving the team a chance. The Canadiens have the better record and the better form, and the Penguins are looking for a second road win this season.

Sources: official NHL statistics.