Penguins rout Canadiens as Sidney Crosby gets 1st goal of season

Even though he was born and raised in Sweden, Montreal Canadiens rookie defenseman Mattias Norlinder’s favorite player as a kid captivated him from an entirely different continent.

Sidney Crosby.

Making his NHL debut Thursday, the 21-year-old Norlinder — who was 6 when Crosby played his first NHL game in 2005 — noted the unique opportunity to step on the ice with one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

With one caveat.

“When I grew up, he was my idol,” Norlinder said to media in Montreal on Wednesday. “Tomorrow, he will not be my idol.”

Norlinder and his teammates might have felt they drank bitter waters after Thursday. That’s because the Penguins captain scored his first goal of the season and led his team to a badly needed 6-0 win against the Canadiens at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry made 24 saves to record his — and the Penguins’ — first shutout of the season and boosted his record to 6-4-3.

The victory snapped a three-game losing streak and was only the second road win for the Penguins this season, their first being a 6-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the season opener Oct. 12.

A three-goal outburst in the opening period put the Penguins up for good.

“The first period was a good sign,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said to media in Montreal. “Playing on your toes, try to initiate the play instead of reacting to it. That’s the way we need to play. When we’re at our best, that’s what we do. It was a pretty good first period. It got us the momentum pretty early.”

Crosby struck first 3 minutes, 36 seconds into regulation. After a neutral-zone turnover by Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry, Penguins forward Bryan Rust claimed the puck and surged into the offensive zone on the left wing. From the left circle, Rust slipped a backhand pass to the right circle for linemate Jake Guentzel, who one-touched the puck to the slot for Crosby. With Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot falling then sliding into goaltender Cayden Primeau, Crosby was able to plunk in an easy forehand shot for his first goal since May 16.

“I was just trying to get up in the play,” Crosby said. “It’s easy sometimes on a two-on-one (rush) just to watch and be a spectator and hope it goes in. I was just trying to get up in the play. If a pass got broken up or a puck laid there, I was just going to try to clean it up. … (Guentzel) made a great play to find me there and I had an open net.”

The Penguins supplemented that start with a score at 12:39 of the first period just after a power-play opportunity had expired. Settling a loose puck above the right circle of the offensive zone, Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen backhanded a pass to the center point. From there, Penguins defenseman John Marino golfed a one-timer that missed wide to the right of the net, then ricocheted off the end boards. While Penguins forward Jason Zucker missed the rebound, forward Danton Heinen claimed it and jabbed a quick wrister under Primeau’s left arm for his fifth goal of the season.

Guentzel claimed his sixth goal late in the opening period at the 19:13 mark. After an offensive-zone entry by Letang, Rust controlled the puck above the left circle, then fed a backhand pass to the right circle for Guentzel. Off-balance and standing only on his left leg, Guentzel flung a wrister through a screen by Letang and Primeau’s legs.

The Penguins’ fourth line got in on the act by scoring the final three goals.

It became a 4-0 game at 13:49 of the second period. After Penguins forward Brock McGinn gained the offensive zone on the left wing and lost the puck on a poke check by Chiarot, Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese claimed the puck and created a two-on-none rush with linemate Teddy Blueger. Approaching the net, Aston-Reese fed a pass to Blueger, who lifted a wrister from the slot past Primeau’s blocker for his fourth goal.

McGinn collected his fourth goal at the 16:12 mark of the middle period. Collecting a loose puck behind the Canadiens’ net, Blueger dished a pass to the right point for defenseman Mike Matheson. Surveying the zone for a moment, Matheson chucked a wrister. From the right of the crease, McGinn deflected the puck past Primeau’s glove on the near side.

Blueger capped the scoring at 19:49 of the third with a breakaway score, putting a forehand shot through backup goaltender Sam Montembeault’s legs.

Jarry’s shutout came a handful of days after he was torched by the Washington Capitals in a 6-1 road loss on Sunday.

“He was really solid, right from the get-go,” assistant coach Todd Reirden said. “He was not happy about how things had gone recently. This was a real, I thought, chance for him to take a stance. … Really solid handling pucks, rebound control and just the way he was playing at the top of his crease tonight to me showed a guy who was out to prove something.”

The Penguins are hoping Thursday’s triumph is proof that Crosby has put the aftereffects of his various maladies — offseason wrist surgery and a bout with covid-19 — further behind him and that he’s closer to the form that has made him an icon.

“It’s hard,” said Letang, who also dealt with the virus earlier this month. “He didn’t have the preseason, no training camp, gets hit by covid right away. Just covid itself, when you’re 10 days at home doing nothing, even if you can maybe ride the bike, it’s nothing like going on the ice. It’s a different type of conditioning.

“It takes time. It takes a few games to get it going. He’s just going to get better and better. It’s just a question of time.”