Penguins vs. Red Wings
PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA
7:00PM Eastern – AT&TSN | FS-D
The Penguins come out of the holiday break after gifting their fans some competent play, riding high on a bit of a tear that has seen them move into much firmer playoff footing among the Metropolitan Division’s leaders. They’ll be back at it again to host the Red Wings to begin the sprint toward the All-Star Break.
The Penguins are riding a 3-game winning streak and have gone 7-2-1 in their last 10.
They’ve done so with some strong defensive and goaltending performances of late, having allowed just 2 goals in their last 3 games, two of which were victories from a character named Matt Murray that George R.R. Martin and most of you all had killed in the first few episodes of this season.
With the second half of the season looming large and some true parity across the league, the rise of Murray paired with the competence of DeSmith could help the Penguins differentiate themselves in what should be a tumultuous and telling second half.
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Simon – Malkin – Hornqvist
Pearson – Brassard – Kessel
Aston-Reese – Cullen – Sheahan
Dumoulin – Letang
Pettersson – Johnson
Maatta – Riikola
Murray
The Red Wings have played more hockey to this point than anyone else in the Eastern Conference, as their 38GP was the most on the advent-side of Christmas for anyone in either the Metropolitan or Atlantic Division. What’s unfortunate is across those 38GP, they’ve posted just 36 points, good for 12th in the East even with a few games in hand over Carolina, Philadelphia, Ottawa, and New Jersey.
The Red Wings have been in the midst of what seems like a multi-year rebuild project for multiple years now. There’s some new blood in the lineup, but they’re still a few years off from truly being a threat. That being said, there are certainly some talented individuals on the team and Jimmy Howard has had a little bit of a resurgence to the barely-above-mediocrity that got him some notoriety in the first place.
The Red Wings are 20th in the league in both PP% and PK%.
Former Penguin and Stanley Cup Champion Trevor Daley skates on the top pair for the Wings with some guy named Dennis Cholowski, who definitely sounds like a guy who sells pierogies at a stand on Polish Hill.
Nyquist – Larkin – Abdelkader
Bertuzzi – Nielsen – Vanek
Athanasiou – Glendening – Rasmussen
Ehn – De La Rose – Frk
Cholowski – Daley
Kronwall – Jensen
Eriksson – Hronek
Howard
Clip the Wings.
Go Pens.
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