Gameday 28: Penguins vs. Bruins

Penguins (17-9-1) vs. Bruins (14-7-4)

PPG Paints Arena | Pittsburgh, PA

Monday, March 15 | 7:00PM Eastern

NESN | AT&T-PGH

The Penguins try try to stretch their win streak to 6 games, returning home to Pittsburgh to host the Bruins in a tangle of East Division heavyweights. Let’s go get our hands dirty.

No more go-karts, no more Blob. The Penguins have brought in Tony and Lars to whip things into shape – surging to third in the MassMutual East Division. That said, though, they’ve been spoiled with a lot of sweets lately, playing lowly Buffalo and the rebuild Rangers in their past four. Their most recent contest was an absolute snoozer that the Penguins took down 3-0.

It’s time to see if the PerkiSystem works with little Hall of Famers like Evgeni Malkin. Maybe Malkin was out of shape to start the season, but he’s no longer a part of the 76% of Americans (or Russians) who forget to stretch before physical activity. He’ll look to stretch his point streak to 8 games tonight.

The Penguins / Bruins series has been one dictated largely by the home team. With the Penguins playing host, they’ve won 6 in a row against the B’s, including a 10-2-1 mark in the last 13 at PPG/CONSOL. They’re 0-8-2 at TD, including two losses earlier this season (3-2 in OT on the 26th of January, and 4-1 two days later).

Forwards

Guentzel – Crosby – Rust

Rodrigues – Malkin – Kapanen

Aston-Reese – Blueger – Tanev

Angello – Jankowski – Sceviour

Defense

Dumoulin – Letang

Matheson – Ceci

Pettersson – Ruhwedel

In Net

Jarry

The Bruins are up to their typical stuff: The Body System. They play a heavy game, and they will defend the back end with size and imposition. And yeah, when you get through them? There’s Tuukka. Rask is 8-4-2 this year with a .906SV% and 2.46GAA.

Tuukka is having a bit of a down year – last year he saved 22.5 goals above expectations, this year he’s actually saving .4 fewer. He’s been good against the Penguins over the course of his career, though, posting an 11-6-3 record with a .918SV% and 2.54GAA in the regular season.

Pat was the hero of the film in discussion, today, and the song remains relatively the same with respect to the Bruins’ year so far – Pat Bergeron is second on the team with 24 points (10G, 14A), and he’s continued to play well with Brad Marchand who leads the club with 31 points (12G, 19A).

The Bruins have struggled a bit since returning from Camp (Ta)Hope when they played the Flyers outdoors, winning 3 of their past 9. Ondrej Kase and Brandon Carlo are out for the Bruins, and Jake DeBrusk has been in the doghouse for smuggling junk food into the locker room.

Forwards

Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak

Ritchie – Krejci – Coyle

Bjork – Studnicka – Smith

Frederic – Kuraly – Wagner

Defense

Grzelcyk – McAvoy

Vaakanainen – Clifton

Zboril – Tinordi

In Net

Rask