Lookin for the luck of the Irish
Who: Detroit Red Wings (34-27-6, 74 points, 5th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (29-28-9, 67 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 6 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Bally Sports Detroit in the local markets, NHL Network for the rest
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens head to New Jersey for a Tuesday night game, then get their first instance of two consecutive days without games since Feb 23-24. The road trip continues next Friday in Dallas and then ends in Colorado a week from today.
Opponent Track: The Red Wings are probably the most volatile team in the NHL right now. They were unstoppable coming out of the All-Star break, going 7-2-0 that included a six-game winning streak. Vibes were through the roof when they smacked down the Capitals by an 8-3 final score on February 27th. Then the roller coaster went down and they lost seven straight games going into yesterday’s game against Buffalo. They’ve been booed off the ice at home and had teammates fighting in practice as times have gotten tough.
Season Series: Detroit took the first game 6-3 way back in mid-October and the two teams haven’t seen each other since. They play again on April 11th near the end of the season to close out the three-game series.
Projected lines (from practice on Friday)
FORWARDS
Alex DeBrincat - J.T. Compher - Patrick Kane
David Perron - Joe Veleno - Lucas Raymond
Michael Rasmussen - Andrew Copp - Christian Fischer
Robby Fabbri - Austin Czarnik - Daniel Sprong
DEFENSEMEN
Shayne Gostisbehere / Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot / Jeff Petry
Olli Maatta / Justin Holl
Goalies: Alex Lyon, Ville Husso (James Reimer started yesterday)
Possible scratches: Jake Wallman, Jonatan Berggren, Dylan Larkin
IR: none
—Sounds like Larkin is out with an injury through today, which is a break for the Pens to not see Detroit’s leading scorer.
—Wallman and Sprong are each dealing with minor injuries, it’s possible Wallman could be back for today.
(via hockeydb, not including yesterday’s game)
—Patrick Kane is something more of a hockey player and into a medical marvel at this point. He had the hip surgery that quickly ended the careers of players like Ryan Kesler, Ed Jovanovski and Nicklas Backstrom. Kane (plus medical technology) has raised the bar and is showing that the hip resurfacing isn’t the automatic career ender that is once was under the right circumstances.
—Daniel Sprong is having one of the more interesting career paths in recent memory. The Red Wings mark his fourth different team in the last five seasons. He’s good at scoring, bad at finding a niche anywhere — he’s only played in the 11-13 minute range on lower lines at every stop of the way. He’s productive, but still never found a comfortable fit with any coach or team he’s been at.
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Lars Eller - Valtteri Puustinen
Emil Bemstrom - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter
DEFENSEMEN
Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang
Ryan Graves / Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig / P.O. Joseph
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic (Tristan Jarry started yesterday)
Potential Scratches: Jesse Puljujarvi, John St. Ivany
IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Jansen Harkins (hand injury)
