Penguins vs. Panthers
PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA
7:00PM Eastern – AT&TSN | FS-F
The Penguins continue to jostle for playoff positioning as they host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at the Paint Bucket.
The Penguins had been pinned to the wall in an all-but-must-win scenario at the unfriendly confines of l’Centre Bell on Saturday night, and they came out swinging like a guy storming out of a South Philly basement caked with stale beer and sweat under half-lit fluorescents. And they’ve spent the winter writing songs about getting better, and if we’re being honest, they’re getting there.
The Pens exploded for 3 first-period goals and walked home with a strong showing and a 5-1 win to vault themselves into the first wild card spot in the East. That’s all well and good, but they can’t fall into a trap game scenario against the Panthers.
The Cats haven’t lit the world on fire but they haven’t exactly just watched it burn either. Speaking of burning, watch out for the Cats’ lethal top line, who can cause a lot of damage that no analgesic ointment won’t fix.
Brian Dumoulin returned to full contact and skated the full morning with the club, he looks to be a game-time decision after Wayne Simmonds tried to separate his head from his body in the outdoor game that will live in infamy. Kris Letang jumped in on the scrum and was subsequently injured. He remains on the shelf, but did join the club in a non-contact sweater for practice this morning. Olli Maatta continues to progress but has not yet rejoined the team for practice.
Matt Cullen suits up for his 1500th game in the NHL.
87 needs 1 point for 1200 in his career, while 71 is 4 points from 1000.
Murray in the cage.
McCann – Crosby – Guentzel
ZAR – Malkin – Kessel
Simon – Bjugstad – Hornqvist
Blueger – Cullen – Wilson
Johnson – Dumoulin
Pettersson – Gudbranson
Riikola – Schultz
Murray
The Panthers are led by Sasha Barkov’s 68 points in 65 games, while Mike Hoffman paces their goal-scoring (30) and Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team in helpers (47). The Cats enter the game 5th in the Atlantic with a lot of ground to makeup in a crowded Wild Card race for an improbable trip to the postseason.
The Panthers’ power play is very dangerous, 3rd best in the league, converting on 26.2% of opportunities. Their penalty kill is 10th best in the league with an 81.6% success rate down a man. Unsurprisingly, with these special teams metrics, the Panthers are among the bottom third of the league with 125 5v5 goals for (11th worst) and 150 5v5 goals against (3rd worst). That puts them at 45.45GF%, 4th worst in the league.
Long story short, the Penguins will put themselves in position to get an important win by playing this game at full strength as much as possible.
Roberto Luongo is 1-1 in 2 games this season vs. the Penguins, allowing 6 goals on 47 shots, with 3 of those 6 goals of the shorthanded variety. Former Panther Jared McCann had a shorty in the Penguins’ 3-2 OT loss in February, while the injured Bryan Rust and current Panther Riley Sheahan each tallied a marker a man down in the Penguins 5-1 victory in January.
In his career against the Penguins, Luongo is 16-11-6 with a .905SV% and 2.99GAA.
Huberdeau – Barkov – Dadonov
Vatrano – Trocheck – Hoffman
McGinn – Sheahan – Brouwer
Hawryluk – Borgstrom – Hunt
Matheson – Ekblad
Yandle – Weegar
Pysyk – Brown
Luongo
Wakanda forever.
Go Pens.
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