The Montreal Canadiens are doing the awkward thing every hot team eventually does: making the absence of their captain look almost normal. That is not a sustainable plan forever, but it has worked long enough to create a very real question heading into Saturday at Bell Centre — can they make it five straight against the Pittsburgh Penguins and keep this little surge alive on Halloween?
This is not a matchup built on mystery. Montreal has been productive without Nick Suzuki, who is expected to miss more time with an upper-body injury, and the response has been simple enough to respect: keep winning. The Canadiens arrive after a 5-2 victory at the Dallas Stars on Thursday, October 29, 2026, when Jakub Dobes made 17 saves to steady things again. That matters because this team is not just surviving; it is collecting results while missing the player you would normally expect to drive the whole operation.
Montreal’s form is real, but the next test is not decorative
The cleanest version of this story is that the Canadiens are playing with confidence and the Penguins are trying to hang around in the standings. Pittsburgh enters with points in three straight games, which means this is not some wounded opponent drifting toward the finish line. It is a team with enough structure to make life uncomfortable, even if Montreal has the momentum and the home crowd.
That is what makes the game interesting rather than merely festive. The Canadiens have been winning, yes, but they are also asking bigger questions of themselves every night now. Who carries the attack when Suzuki is missing? How much of this run is form, and how much is sustainable? And if the crease becomes a decision between Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobes, how much trust does Montreal want to place in the one who gets the call?
Dobes has at least given them a reason to believe. One strong outing does not solve a season, but 17 saves in a 5-2 win is exactly the kind of detail that keeps a team from turning one injury into a crisis. The Canadiens do not need perfection here. They need calm, some maturity, and enough quality to make sure a game against a point-grabbing Pittsburgh side does not become a trap.
Crosby’s milestone is the headline Pittsburgh can still carry
And then there is Sidney Crosby, because there almost always is. The Penguins center needs one power-play point to tie Phil Housley for 10th most in NHL history, which gives this game an extra layer even if Montreal’s form is the louder storyline. Crosby has spent years making milestone chases feel almost routine, which is a ridiculous thing to say about a player of his standing — and yet here we are again.
That does not mean the Penguins are arriving as passengers. It means they have enough quality and enough incentive to make this a serious game. The Montreal crowd will want the fifth straight win. Pittsburgh will want to extend its own points streak. Crosby will be chasing a place in the record book. That is a pretty good Halloween setup, even before you get to the fact that the Canadiens have been finding ways to win without their captain.
So, yes, Montreal have the edge. They have the form, the home ice, and the more convincing recent results. But the danger in games like this is assuming the narrative writes itself. It never does. The Penguins are still capable of making this uncomfortable, and the Canadiens still have to prove that this run is more than a good week dressed up as something larger. Saturday should tell us a fair bit.
