The Penguins go for their first season series sweep of Montreal today at Bell Centre. They are 3-0 against the Canadiens by a combined 12-4.

In fact, the Penguins have a franchise-best five-game winning streak against Montreal, which is bunched with seven other teams trying to claim what is shaping up as the final three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

That can't go over very well in the city of the most storied franchise in the NHL, keeper of the Stanley Cup a record 24 times but not since 1992-93.

"They love their hockey. They love a winning team," said winger Pascal Dupuis, one of the Penguins' French-Canadian players, after practice Friday at Mellon Arena.

"Right now, they're on the edge of making it or not making it. It depends. If they win, [the fans] are behind them; if they lose [the fans] get on them a little bit. They're analyzing all the rights and the wrongs of every game. If they do [miss the playoffs], the fans and the media are going to be all over them."

Defenseman Kris Letang, another Quebec native, amended that to a degree. The way he sees it, his hometown fans come in a couple of different flavors.

"Montreal, half of the fans are real fans, and the other people, they want to be media, I think. They all want to give their opinion," Letang said.

"I understand that a little bit because they don't have any other sports. They've had all that success in the past. They're used to winning. Now what they look for is a winning team every year."

Montreal claimed the final playoff berth in the East last season, then got swept by Boston in the first round of the playoffs. That led to a major overhaul in personnel and a new coach, Jacques Martin.

In the chase to improve on that finish, Montreal has 60 points.

Going into games Friday night, that put the Canadiens fifth in the East and at the top of that clawing group of eight clubs, but not by much. Just six points separated the eight teams.

And most of the other seven had at least a game in hand on Montreal. The top eight in the conference qualify for the postseason.

The only Canadiens player in the top 30 in scoring is center Tomas Plekanec, with 55 points, including 14 goals.

Next on the club is winger Mike Cammalleri, who has 48 points but is expected to miss the next six weeks because of a knee injury.

The stretch run after the Olympics break could come with doses of victory celebrations and venom, depending on what the Canadiens do and where they are in relation to the playoff cutoff line.

"It's anywhere that cares about their team, but [given that] it's a Canadian team and Montreal being the hockey city that it is, there's always pressure there," said Penguins center Sidney Crosby, who grew up in Nova Scotia a Canadiens fan and has four goals -- including a hat trick -- and five points in the three wins against his boyhood team this season.

"When you're losing, it's probably even more. In some ways, that may help them. It may push them. They're playing pretty desperate hockey right now."

Montreal has won both of its games in February after going 4-7-2 in January.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, another Montreal-area Frenchman, still loves going home to play in front of his family and friends. Of course, he doesn't have to stick around for the after affects if he beats the Canadiens, as he has done in each of the teams' three meetings this season.

"They love their team so much," Fleury said. "They love hockey so much. They always want their team to win. They talk a lot about it, about being in the playoffs or out.

"It's like football around here. It's the same thing pretty much. That's what people expect,"

Letang said he has sensed a "kind of panic" around the city when Montreal has a bad run of games, and that starts in the Bell Centre stands.

"It gets ugly a little bit. Guys get booed," Letang said. "They push the panic button really quickly."

Sitting home for the playoffs would increase that exponentially.

"That's unacceptable, especially for a city like that that just lives on hockey," Letang said.

It's not that Letang is glad he doesn't have the pressure of playing for his hometown team. He's got a Stanley Cup ring with the Penguins but would appreciate any spot in the NHL.

"Honestly, if I would play there, I would be excited to go on the ice, just like I am here," he said.

"But you have to deliver there."

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.