Penguins

Penguins Game 44, Early Start: Lines, Notes, & How to Watch vs. Senators

Published

2 weeks ago

January 11, 2025

Pittsburgh Penguins game, Ottawa Senators

The Pittsburgh Penguins (18-17-8) managed to keep their head above water despite a recent four-game losing streak because they earned three loser points with a pair of overtime losses and a shootout loss. The team snapped out of its post-holiday funk with a resounding win Thursday and badly needs to keep the momentum going as they face a fellow wild-card contender, the Ottawa Senators (19-18-3), at PPG Paints Arena.

The puck drops just after 4 p.m., so Yinz can get home for the Steelers game later (Follow SteelersNow.com for all of the playoff coverage).

The Penguins snarled and pounced on the Edmonton Oilers Thursday, racing to a 4-1 lead and a 5-3 win. The game was complete with chippiness, angry scrums, and highlight-worthy goals, and a pair of all-time greats fought for the win. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby rose higher on a couple of NHL record lists with a three-point game (1-2-3).

Edmonton’s captain, Connor McDavid also had three points in the entertaining game.

Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 40 of 43 in a brilliant performance and is expected to keep the net on Saturday.

Earlier this week, Ottawa finished a grueling nine-game road trip. They are 4-5-1 in its last ten games, including a recently snapped four-game losing streak.

However, starting goalie Linus Ullmark remains out with an injury, and the Senators are struggling to find competent netminders.

The Penguins and Ottawa have the same .513 winning percentage, which means they’re essentially tied for the second wild card. Ottawa trails the Penguins by three points but has two games in hand.

Penguins Lines

Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting-Cody Glass-Anthony Beauvillier

Drew O’Connor-Kevin Hayes-Jesse Puljujarvi

Matt Nieto-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari

Defense

Marcus Pettersson-Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson

Owen Pickering-P.O Joseph

Goalie: Alex Nedeljkovic (likely)/Tristan Jarry

Senators Lines

Brady Tkachuk-Tim Stutzle-Ridly Greig

Claude Giroux-Josh Norris-Jake Batherson

Zack Ostapchuk-Shane Pinto-Nick Cousins

Cole Reinhardt-Adam Gaudette-Zac MacEwen

Defense

Thomas Chabot-Nick Jensen

Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub

Tyler Kleven-Nikolas Mantinpalo

Goalie: Anton Forsberg/Leevi Merilainen

Special Teams

Penguins power play: 26.8%, 4th. Penguins penalty kill: 80.0%, 15th.

Senators Power Play: 23.8%, 9th. Senators Penalty Kill: 77.4%, 23rd.

Penguins Game Notes

The Penguins have points in 15 of its last 19 games versus Ottawa (9-4-6) dating back to March 23, 2017, but Ottawa has won the last two games at PPG Paints Arena.

The is the Penguins’ ninth set of back to back games. The team is 1-7-0 in the first of back-to-backs this season.

Matt Grzelcyk is one assist shy of tying his career high of assists (22) set in 75 games with Boston in 22-23.

Sidney Crosby’s three-point game Thursday surpassed Phil Esposito and Mark Messier for fifth most three-plus points games, all-time. Crosby is 11 three-plus point games behind Jaromir Jagr for fourth.

Since Nov. 27, Rickard Rakell has the second most goals in the NHL (14). Only Leon Draisaitl has more (15).