CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Saturday's 12 p.m. scrimmage will be the last time Penguins players take the ice at the UPMC Lemieux Complex before heading into the Toronto bubble for what could be more than two months.
This is set to be the first scrimmage throughout camp with a complete roster of players, after Patric Hornqvist and Juuso Riikola missed the first two, and Sidney Crosby missed the last two.
The quality of play and the energy of these scrimmages has gotten better with each game, and the coaching staff is looking for that to continue with this fourth scrimmage.
"I think we’ve been very pleased with the scrimmages, how they’ve gone," assistant coach Jacques Martin said after Friday's practice. "It seems like we’ve raised the intensity level every game. We’ve raised the attention to detail. It seems like we’ve improved in all different facets. Tomorrow is our last opportunity to try to work on the details again and try to get ready for one preseason game, as you know, next Tuesday against the Flyers, and then it all starts next Saturday against Montreal. It’s just part of the process of peaking at the right time next Saturday.”
There's still some fine-tuning that can be done before moving into the bubble.
"I think the intensity is there," Letang said. "There's always details to focus on, we're always trying to improve a couple of things. Right now I would say to make sure we're focusing on playing the right way and maybe finishing our checks, but be careful at the same time because we're going to need all of those guys to be ready to play next week. These details are the ones we have to keep focusing on."
The pace of these scrimmages has gotten better with each one played, with the top two lines especially showing a lot of speed. Montreal is a team with a lot of speed through all four forward lines, and the Penguins will have to try to match that.
"We have to make sure we're playing fast," Jason Zucker said of the series against Montreal. "We have to make sure that they have to defend us hard, and that they're not going to be able to transition as quick."
At the same time, there's ways to try to neutralize Montreal's speed.
"Their defensemen don't necessarily carry the puck all of the time, they want to get it moved to the forwards and join the rush late," Zucker explained. "We just have to make sure we take away a lot of their options and get on them quick so they can't move the puck as fast."
Another facet of the Canadiens game that the Penguins have to be aware of is Shea Weber's shot, especially from his spot at the point on the power play. Looking at a visualization of where Montreal's shot attempts were coming from on power plays this season, there's a big dark blob representing a high frequency of shots right where Weber is positioned:
"We know one of their weapons is Shea Weber on the point or acting on one of the flanks," Martin said of the Canadiens' power play. "I think it's a power play that we have to be prepared to pressure. We've worked the last couple of weeks on our strategy, and reviewed some of the concepts that we worked on through the season. We have one more week to jell and make sure that we're working together as a penalty kill."
Montreal's greatest asset, more so than Weber's shot from the point on the power play or the speed of their forwards, is Carey Price in net. The last time the Penguins played the Canadiens in the playoffs in 2010, they saw how a goaltender can unexpectedly steal a series with the way Jaroslav Halak performed.
Martin is well aware of what a hot goaltender can do to a series, as he was the Canadiens' head coach in 2010, and he and the rest of the coaching staff are just focusing on the things in their control.
"We realize it’s going to be a tough series," Martin said. "They’ve got an excellent hockey team over there. We’ve played them three times this season. I think our focus has been right from the start on our game, on our players, on our team. We’ll have a game plan for them. We’re concentrating on doing the things that are within our control.”
Entering the last day of camp, while there are still some work to be done before Aug. 1, the players feel as prepared as they can be from the homework they've done on Montreal and the preparations they've done in practice.
"I think we're ready to go," said Jared McCann. "You see it in our scrimmages, everybody is really competitive. Guys are hitting each other, we're playing as if we're in a real game. I feel like that's going to separate us from a lot of teams, and we're going to be ready to go for puck drop."
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