Penguins Game 16, Frying Pan to Fire; Lines, Notes & How to Watch vs. Capitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Pittsburgh Penguins (5-8-2) find themselves against another juggernaut Friday as they complete their three-game Metro Division road trip with a visit to their arch nemesis, the Washington Capitals (9-3-0) at Capital One Arena.

The puck drops just after 7:30 p.m, but the game won’t be on broadcast TV.

The Penguins didn’t blow a two-goal lead or give up goals in bunches Thurday. Instead, they didn’t score until midway through the third period were behind to the Carolina Hurricanes by the first minute of the game. A couple or few Erik Karlsson mistakes put the Penguins in a small hole, w 13 of 1hile their lack of finish and mistakes by others made Carolina’s lead grow in a 5-1 Penguins’ loss.

Read More: Penguins Grades: Sullivan Rips ‘A Few Guys,’ Not Hard to Figure Out Who

Blake Lizotte capped a strong game with the Penguins’ only goal.

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic placed blame upon himself after stopping only 13 of 18 shots, though the Penguins remain the worst team in the NHL at giving up high-danger chances. They gave up some beauties on Thursday.

The Capitals have won four of five games, losing only even hotter Carolina in that span. The Capitals beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Wednesday–a game that Penguins GM Kyle Dubas attended.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 861st career goal. He’s now only 34 goals short of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record and has goals in five straight games.

The Penguins may need to cahnge their lines slightly Friday as forward Cody Glass missed the second and third periods with an apparent upper-body injury Thursday. Valtteri Puustinen or Bryan Rust could fill the spot. Rust is recovering from injury but coach Mike Sullivan said Rust might play on the trip. Kevin Hayes was injured on Tuesday and Sullivan termed him day-to-day, but indicated evaluations were continuing as of Wednesday.

One shocking statistic to note: The Capitals have the worst power play in the NHL at 9.3%.

Possible Penguins Lines

Evgeni Malkin-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor-Lars Eller-Bryan Rust?

Michael Bunting-Noel Acciari-Jesse Puljujarvi

Anthony Beauvillier-Blake Lizotte-Valtteri Puustinen

Defense

Matt Grzelcyk-Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves-Jack St. Ivany

Starting Goalie: Joel Blomqvist

Capitals Lines, Per Daily Faceoff

Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Aliekei Protas

Connor McMichael–Pierre-Luc Dubois–Tom Wilson

Andrew Mangiapane-Hendrix Lapierre-Jakub Vrana

Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh

Defense

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin-Matt Roy

Alexander Alexeyev-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Starting Goalie: Charlie Lindgren

Special Teams

Penguins power play: 20.5%, 14th. Penguins penalty kill: 85.7%, 7th.

Capitals power play: 9.3%, 32nd. Capitals penalty kill: 85.4%, 8th.

Penguins Game Notes

*The Penguins have points in five-straight visits to Capital One Arena (4-0-1) and are 6-1-1 in their last eight road games against the Capitals.

How to Watch