The regular season really means about nothing at this point. Otherwise the Montreal Canadiens, who finished 33 points behind the Washington Capitals wouldn't have bothered to show up. That said, it's still interesting to see how the matchups went, if only to amuse ourselves to pass the time.
Pittsburgh won the season series 3-1 against the Montreal Canadiens in 2009-10, but they haven't met since the beginning of February and Carey Price (who we almost certainly will not see) played two games start to finish. So let's throw those out for further examination. Which leaves:
October 28th, 2009 (in Pittsburgh)
Penguins 6, Canadiens 1
--Ok yeah, this was a long, long time ago. How long? Chris Bourque even registered an assist on the 6th goal. Even then, Sidney Crosby scored a hat-trick (Jaroslav Spacek/Roman Hamrlik on the ice for the first two goals, Josh Gorges/Hal Gill for the final one). Chris Kunitz scored a goal and three assists and Bill Guerin tallied three apples. Halak gave up four goals in the first two periods and was lifted in favor of Price for the final goal.
February 6th 2010 (in Montreal)
Canadiens 5, Penguins 3
--This time it was Montreal's turn to touch up Pittsburgh's goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury) for four goals and chase him from the game. Brian Gionta had 2 goals and an assist, Tomas Plekanec had a goal and two assists. Dan Bylsma reacted after the game: "I don't think we played a very good game today as a team, and that's a very disappointing way to lose". Yikes. Something tells me the team needs to watch this game-tape to show that this will be no walk in the park.
Notable Penguins in the season series:
Sidney Crosby: 4 games played, 4 goals, 2 assists, +4
Bill Guerin: 4gp, 2g, 4a, +3
Chris Kunitz: 1gp, 1g, 3a, +3
Jordan Staal: 4gp, 0g, 3a, +1
Evgeni Malkin: 4gp, 1g, 3a, +2
Notable Canadiens in the season series:
Brian Gionta: 2 games played, 2 goals, 2 assists, -4
Michael Cammalleri: 3gp, 0g, 1a, -3
Tomas Plekanec: 4gp, 2g, 2a, -2
Scott Gomez: 3gp, 1g, 2a, -3
Andrei Kostitsyn: 2gp, 0g, 0a, -3