The Pens take on the mighty Hurricanes
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (17-17-6, 40 points, 4th place Metropolitan Division) @ Carolina Hurricanes (23-14-2, 48 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 6:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and FDSNSO for the local markets, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: It’s a busy January for the Penguins, but they at least get to go back home for the next five games. The long homestand opens on Tuesday when the Columbus Blue Jackets pay a visit, followed by Edmonton (oh God) on Thursday and then Ottawa/Tampa come to the ‘Burgh for a weekend afternoon set of games next Saturday/Sunday.
Opponent Track: For the second game in a row, the Pens are visiting a team who played the night before. Carolina took on Minnesota at home last night, losing 4-0 to the Wild. The Hurricanes won 3-1 against Florida a few nights ago on Thursday. The Hurricanes are 2-2-1 since the Christmas break ended.
Season Series: Fortunately for the Pens, this is the last PIT/CAR game of the season tonight. The Hurricanes won the first two matchups, 4-1 back on Oct. 18th and then 5-1 on Nov. 5th.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins have lost seven straight games at the building now known as the Lenovo Center, dating back to Dec. 22, 2018 (0-4-3). If you’re looking for a bright side, five of the seven games during the 0-4-3 stretch have been one-goal games (per Pens PR).
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Jack Roslovic - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Andrei Svechnikov - Jesper Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
William Carrier - Jordan Staal - Jordan Martinook
Eric Robinson - Jack Drury - Jackson Blake
DEFENSEMEN
Jaccob Slavin / Brent Burns
Dmitri Orlov / Jalen Chatfield
Ty Smith / Sean Walker
Goalies: Dustin Tokarski and Pyotr Kochetkov (who played last night)
Potential Scratches: Shayne Gotisbehere (injury), Frederik Andersen (injury), Tyson Jost (injury)
IR: Jesper Fast
—Ty Smith sighting! Smith was a throw-in for the Jake Guentzel trade and allowed to stay in Wilkes through the end of last season. He migrated over to playing for AHL Chicago at the beginning of the season but defensive injuries have opened the door for his first NHL games since the 2022-23 season.
(via hockeydb)
Note: does not include last night’s game
—Carolina, your goalies, woof! Frederik Andersen went on the shelf early (and still might be out another 2-6 weeks) and since then it’s been a rotating mess trying to find guys to play in the crease with youngster Kochetkov. Next up has been former Penguin Dustin Tokarski, who has made a career for being about as good a temporary patch in the NHL as any one.
—Upon last seeing Necas against the Pens on Nov 7th, he was at the end of his red hot start to the season with nearly two points per game (20 points in the first 11 contests of the year). Naturally, he’s taken a modest step back since then but is still looking like a force with an over point per game season in store this year in his breakout season.
—The absence of Gotisbehere might be bigger than recognized, he puts up a lot of points and fits in the active/shooting type of style Carolina employs like a glove.
—Roslovic has 3G+1A in the two games against Pittsburgh this season. He’s out to the team-lead in goals as we near mid-season with a nice little mid-career renaissance with the Hurricanes.
There are not too many weaknesses on this Carolina team. They’re well-coached, great on special teams, suffocate teams at even strength and top-10 across the board in these categories. They make the opponents fight for every inch of space for the whole game, always gotta pack a lunch and get ready for a long day against them. Tonight should be no different, but they did play last night. As always, the key will be a strong start and holding on early for the visitors — while hoping maybe the tank empties a bit as the game goes along for the club that had to play last night. Easier said than done, of course.
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Cody Glass
Drew O’Connor - Kevin Hayes - Anthony Beauvillier
Matt Nieto - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Marcus Pettersson / P.O. Joseph
Ryan Graves / Owen Pickering
Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Jesse Puljujarvi, Ryan Shea, Philip Tomasino (injury)
IR: Kris Letang
—The Pens practiced yesterday in Carolina with the above alignment. Tomasino, who took a nasty spill into the wall on Friday night in Florida, was not on the ice. Coach Mike Sullivan provided a brief non-update update about Tomasino being still under evaluation.
—On the positive news, Letang was able to rejoin practice and things sound relatively encouraging. He may not play today but a return doesn’t sound too distant in the future.
Kris Letang: "I felt pretty good today. It was my first time out there with people, so I was able to stress it a little bit more. I've had that injury many times, so kind of knew what to expect."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) January 4, 2025
Mike Sullivan said they'll see how he recovers, and make decisions accordingly.
—Would like to see how this third line does. Hayes returned last game after nine straight healthy scratch decisions and he was active with five shots on goal. Beauvillier just took his first healthy scratch of the season on Friday after playing in the Pens’ first 39 games of the season. O’Connor has been chugging along and recently broke a long goalless drought. All of those players ought to have a lot of fire and motivation to play a strong game. We’ll see if it pays off but hopefully all should be in the right frame of mind to make an impact today.
The Penguins have found something with their power play. A subtle wrinkle is that the first power play has morphed into the energy of Michael Bunting joining regular first line (Crosby, Rakell and Rust) plus the puck distribution of Matt Grzelcyk at the back. That leaves the second group to be Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and...well, whatever semi-decent offensive ability is left (especially after injuries to Letang and Tomasino).
But whatever it’s been, it’s effective for the results of scoring nine goals in their last 19 tries in the previous five games. Pittsburgh explored splitting Crosby/Malkin on the power play a little last season, but not to results like these. Be it the influence of the newer players like Bunting+Grzelcyk, the coaching, or a reinvigorated outlook from everyone, it’s been a big positive over the last few weeks.
From the Pens:
Assistant Coach David Quinn has Pittsburgh’s power play firing on all cylinders, having scored on the man advantage in a fifth-straight game. The Penguins rank fourth in the NHL in power-play percentage (26.3%) and going back to Nov. 30, no team has had a better success rate than Pittsburgh’s 34.7%.
Highest PP% Since Nov. 30
Team PPG/PPO PP%
Pittsburgh 17-49 34.7%
Edmonton 12-37 32.4%
Utah 13-41 31.7%
Tampa Bay 12-38 31.6%
Winnipeg 16-51 31.4%The Penguins have scored a whopping nine power-play goals in their last 19 opportunities (47.4%) during their five-game power-play goal streak. Their current five-game streak with a power-play goal is the longest such active streak in the NHL, and one of the longest in the league this season:
Most Consecutive Games with 1+ PPG
Team Dates Streak PPG
Winnipeg Dec. 12-30 7 11
Utah Dec. 8-22 7 9
Buffalo Nov. 5-20 7 8
Tampa Bay Nov. 25-Dec. 8 6 8
Calgary Nov. 19-29 6 7
Winnipeg Oct. 26-Nov. 5 6 8
Pittsburgh Dec. 23-Present 5 9If the Penguins score on the man advantage tomorrow, it would mark the first time the team scored a power-play goal in six-consecutive games since Dec. 1-22, 2022 (10 game streak).
