Penguins (18-9-1) vs. Bruins (14-8-4)
PPG Paints Arena | Pittsburgh, PA
Tuesday, March 16 | 7:00PM Eastern
NESN | AT&T-PGH | NBCSN
The Penguins go balls back (no mid-turn re-racks) as they look to take the 2-gamer with the Bruins in as many nights. They overcame an early PPG from the B’s, eclipsing them with two first-period markers before Evgeni Malkin provided the insurance and Jake Guentzel sent Boston to the glue factory with a 4-1 win.
Ain’t broke? Don’t fix.
Coach Sullivan on the winning streak: "I just think it's a number of things that add up to winning, right? Big plays at key times, managing the game the right way, getting a timely save… For me, it's a collective effort of 20 guys going out with one common goal."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 16, 2021
Jared McCann could make his return tonight, as could John Marino. Both are gametime decisions per @PensInsideScoop. Mark Friedman skated solo, but will be out tonight again. If McCann goes, you’ve gotta figure ERod jumps to the fourth line in favor of Sceviour or Angello. Here’s our best guess:
Forwards
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Rodrigues/McCann – Malkin – Kapanen
Aston-Reese – Blueger – Tanev
Rodrigues/Angello – Jankowski – Sceviour
Defense
Dumoulin – Letang
Matheson – Ceci
Pettersson – Ruhwedel
In Net
DeSmith
On Monday, the Bruins threw 43 shots at Tristan Jarry, but the lone one that found the twice was Matt Grzelcyk’s first of the year on the power play.
34 of those shots were at 5-on-5. The Bruins well documented struggles at evens continue. They’ve got just 40 goals in that scenario on the year – only Dallas (38) and Buffalo (34) have fewer.
They’re 7th best in 5-on-5 goals allowed (43), which has kept them relatively afloat. But this recent stretch, where they’ve lost 9 of 12 has seen them post just 2 even strength markers in their past 5 games.
Rask was a scratch and Halak struggled. Rask isn’t expected to be available this evening, so it’ll be Dan Vladar tonight. The 23-year old 3rd round pick from 2015 will make his NHL Regular Season debut. He’s played in 5 games for AHL Providence, posting a 2-2-1 record while posting a .923SV% and 2.01GAA.
Forwards
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
Ritchie – Krejci – Coyle
Steen – Studnicka – Smith
Frederic – Kuraly – Kuhlman
Defense
Grzelcyk – McAvoy
Zboril – Clifton
Tinordi – Kampfer
In Net
Vladar
ICE Cold Fact: pic.twitter.com/9u9KuXefB2
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) March 15, 2021
Go Pens.
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