MONTREAL -- The Penguins haven't exactly had the world's greatest goaltending of late, but they'll at least have a chance to see what that looks like here Saturday night.
Across the ice, of course.
The Canadiens, their opponent at 7:08 p.m. at the Bell Centre, announced two hours before faceoff that Carey Price, the NHL's longstanding consensus top performer at his position, will get the start tonight against the Penguins. And the visitors announced, shortly thereafter, that Matt Murray will start on their side.
It will be back-to-back starts for both, including for Price after his 28 saves beat the Rangers, 4-2, Friday night in New York.
He was terrific, too, including this beauty on Vladislav Namestnikov:
C'est le fun d'entendre des Carey! Carey! au MSG.
Gotta love hearing the Carey! chant at MSG.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/H6EbzhSc88
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 2, 2019
There wasn't even a rebound on that.
Claude Julien, Montreal's coach, didn't divulge to reporters at Madison Square Garden whether Price would start against the Penguins, but Price responded when asked if he'd be ready to do that: “It’s always a big question. We’ll re-address it in the morning. But I’m sure.”
I just asked Claude Julien if facing the Penguins weighed into his decision to start Carey Price in back-to-back games. #DKPS #Penguins pic.twitter.com/Zo6dz7QuGy
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) March 2, 2019
Asked if he’s feeling at his best physically, he smiled and added: “Oh, yeah.”
It's shown: Price has started 12 of the Canadiens' past 13 games and, in the only start that went to Antti Niemi, he had to enter in relief in the first period. For the season, he's got a 2.51 goals-against average and .918 save percentage -- to Niemi's 3.75 and .889 -- and he's been particularly dominant since the calendar flipped, with a .954 save percentage.
Now's obviously not the time to give him a blow: The Canadiens' victory planted them into the East's seventh spot, the first wild card, and was part of what bumped the Penguins out of the picture to ninth. Two points separate the teams.
Neither teams held a morning skate Saturday. Mike Sullivan will address the media at 5 p.m..
The following were Julien's lines/pairings Friday:
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Domi - Shaw
Byron - Kotkaniemi - Armia
Lehkonen - Thompson - Weise
Mete - Weber
Benn - Petry
Kulak - Folin
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