Penguins vs. Jets
PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA
7:00PM Eastern – AT&TSN | TSN3
The Penguins look to extend their 7-game winning streak to 8 as they play host to Blakey and the Jets on Friday night on Fifth Ave.
The Penguins continued their rampage by ripping King Henrik and the wayward Rangers on Wednesday night. The Penguins didn’t exactly carry the play in terms of possession, but they found the net with a healthy percentage of their limited opportunities on the way to a 7-2 romp. The victory wrapped up a 3-game road trip sweep.
Dating back to the win that got the streak started on December 19, the Penguins have allowed a total of 9 goals (1.29 GA/GP). That’s a marked improvement being driven by a resurgent (read: healthy) Matthew Murray (since returning – 5-0, 1.48GAA, .959SV%) and a solid few outings from Casey DeSmith. They have not allowed more than 2 goals in any game since the streak began.
Games against the Jets have been a bit more lucrative in the scoring department for quite some time, so something’s gotta give.
This is insane: Since the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, they've played the Pens 18 times with the Pens going 14-4-0. Of those games, only 5 (!!!) have seen a combined 4 or fewer goals scored, with one of those being a 4-0 Pens shutout (via @hockey_ref). So Friday should be fun pic.twitter.com/RZPIhvLvEg
— nerd king geoff (@geoffwithano) January 3, 2019
In the first meeting between the teams, the Penguins overcame 3 1-goal deficits to win 4-3 on a game winner from Zach Aston-Reese. ZAR is on a 3-game point streak despite his shuffle back down to the fourth line with the return of Rust.
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Simon – Malkin – Hornqvist
Pearson – Brassard – Kessel
Aston-Reese – Cullen – Sheahan
Dumoulin – Letang
Maatta – Oleksiak
Pettersson – Johnson
Murray
The Jets have risen to prominence in the Western Conference over the last few seasons, and this year they’re off to a wonderful first half, going 25-12-2. Their 52 points are best in the Central with 2 games in hand on most everyone else within striking distance. Remarkably, 24 of their 25 wins have come without the aid of the shootout.Their +23 goal differential is tied with the Penguins and Capitals for 4th best in the league (Tampa, Toronto, and Calgary, respectively lead the category league-wide).
The top line of Ehlers, Schiefele, and Wheeler is nasty enough, but the Jets have one of the league’s most gifted young scorers to throw over the boards to follow them. Patrik Laine leads the team with 24 goals (and looks to be a strong Cy Young contender with just 7 assists to complement). Wheeler leads the team with 50 points, tailed closely by Schiefele’s 49.
Former Penguin pick Joe Morrow skates on the third pairing with Dmitry Kulikov for the Thrashers Jets.
The Penguins boast one of the league’s best power plays, but they’ll see an even more formidable unit in the Jets, who are 2nd in the league with a conversion rate of 28.1% on the man advantage. The Jets are also proficient on the kill, with the league’s 10th best mark of 81.4%.
Ehlers – Schiefele – Wheeler
Connor – Little – Laine
Perreault – Lowry – Tanev
Copp – Roslovic – Lemieux
Morrissey – Trouba
Chiarot – Myers
Kulikov – Morrow
Hellebuyck
Thrash the Jets.
Go Pens.
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