Tim Benz: Penguins reverted to the Dark Side on 'Star Wars' night

There was a great disturbance in the force during Thursday’s “Star Wars” night game for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“It was horrible,” defenseman Kris Letang said. “It was not good at all.”

Letang was a big part of the Planet Alderaan-esque disintegration during a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. It looked like he was the subject of a Montreal Jedi mind trick early in the first period when he coughed up a turnover that turned into a goal less than three minutes into the contest.

Coucou, c'est Texier

*Tex notification* "Alexandre scored"#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/lmjDkUZoNE

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 12, 2025

“The puck bobbled. I tried to pass it. It popped in the air,” Letang explained.

Sorry, Kris. As Yoda once famously said, “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Montreal added two more goals to build a 3-0 lead on a night that featured a 30-minute delay to start the game because of a massive traffic jam on I-279.

Too bad there wasn’t any traffic in front of Canadiens’ rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler.

He stopped 36 pucks during his NHL debut to beat the Penguins, but the home team didn’t exactly make life difficult on the 21-year-old Boston College product.

“There were a number of instances where we were around (the net). We definitely had an opportunity to stay there, and we didn’t,” head coach Dan Muse said.

“It’s an area we have to continue to work on.”

Meanwhile, the Canadiens had no problems making the jump to light speed.

“When they came down, they attacked us. They had a lot of odd-man rushes,” goalie Tristan Jarry said. “They were hitting that flat pass a lot. That’s tough to defend. They had a lot of possession, and they were working the puck really well. I think we were just caught chasing.”

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Jarry has been good lately for the Penguins. But this was a game where examples of what drives Penguins fans crazy about him were easy to find. Montreal scored four times on 29 shots, not to mention a disallowed goal thanks to an offside challenge in the second period.

Some old Jarry bugaboos were present. He allowed a goal early in the game, a goal within the first five minutes of all three periods, and a goal right after the Penguins scored.

Bryan Rust pulled Pittsburgh within a 3-1 margin just 44 seconds into the third period. But then Jarry allowed a goal 15 seconds later to Oliver Kapanen, restoring Montreal’s three-goal lead.

Un 10e but cette saison pour Kapanen!

KAPPY ANSWERS RIGHT BACK#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/AiQtgRjsvF

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 12, 2025

“You need to follow that up to start the period,” Muse said of Rust’s goal. “That doesn’t mean you have to go right down and score, but at least maintain momentum. That, obviously, put us back a step.”

Yeah. A big one. And the Penguins were never able to recover.

Sprinkle in a 1-6 effort on the power play, and one thing was obvious throughout the course of the night:

This is not the way.