Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Colorado Avalanche 3/24/2024 - Lines, how to watch

The Penguins face down Nathan MacKinnon, who is looking to extend his home point streak to 34 straight games, in a matinee battle.

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (30-30-9, 69 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Colorado Avalanche (45-20-5, 95 points, 1st place Central Division)

When: 2 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Nationally broadcast game on TNT, streaming on Max

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins settle into an every-other-day schedule over the upcoming week, starting with Jake Guentzel’s return to PPG Paints Arena as the Carolina Hurricanes come to town Tuesday. Guentzel has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in his first seven games in Carolina.

Opponent Track: The Avalanche are on an eight-game winning streak, and they’ve won 10 of their past 11 contests. The surge has all but erased an uncharacteristic seven-loss February and placed the 2022 Stanley Cup champs back on top of the Central.

Season Series: The Penguins shut out the Avalanche 4-0 on Oct. 26 thanks to a pair of Reilly Smith goals in one of Smith’s two multi-score outings this season.

Getting to know the Avalanche

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Valeri Nichushkin - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen - Casey Mittelstadt - Jonathan Drouin

Brandon Duhaime - Ross Colton - Zach Parise

Miles Wood - Yakov Trenin - Andrew Cogliano

DEFENSEMEN

Devon Toews / Cale Makar

Samuel Girard / Josh Manson

Jack Johnson / Sean Walker

Goalies: Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen

Possible scratches: Joel Kiviranta, Logan O’Connor, Caleb Jones

IR: Gabe Landeskog, Pavel Francouzc

• Nathan MacKinnon is on an absolute tear. He already has career highs of 43 goals and 119 points, and there are still 12 games left in the season. He’s on a 17-game point streak. He looks absurdly dominant every game. It’s hard to overemphasize how big of a threat he’s going to be against the floundering Penguins.

• Hanging out on MacKinnon’s wing doesn’t seem like a bad place to be. Nichushkin just recorded his career-best 26th goal of the season.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

• Backup goaltender Justus Annunen has been getting more playing time for the Avalanche lately. He recorded his fourth straight victory Tuesday with a 30-save win over the St. Louis Blues.

Unstoppable force meets movable object

The Avalanche have an NHL-best 27 wins in 33 games at home.

To make things even more dangerous at Ball Arena, Nathan MacKinnon’s home point streak has reached 33 games, second only to Wayne Gretzky in the NHL record books.

MacKinnon has 27 goals and 45 assists over that stretch. He’s recorded a point in every single one of the Avalanche’s home games so far this season.

That’s bad news for the Penguins, who went into Saturday ranked No. 26 in the NHL with just 12 wins in 34 games on the road.

The Pens arrive in Denver a seven-game road losing streak. That marks the least successful road stretch for the team since 2006, according to Bob Grove.

And now for the Penguins

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 - Jesse Puljujarvi

DEFENSEMEN

P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

John Ludvig / Jack St. Ivany

Goalies: Tristan Jarry or Alex Nedeljkovic

Potential Scratches: Jeff Carter, Ryan Graves

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Jansen Harkins (hand injury)

• Saturday was an off day and travel day for the Penguins, per Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports.
• Tristan Jarry has been pulled in three of his last seven starts, including Friday’s loss to the Stars.
• Ryan Graves missed Friday’s game in anticipation of the birth of his first child. It’s not clear if he’ll be back today or if rookie Jack St. Ivany will remain on the third pairing in his absence.