Penguins

Penguins Rolling Now, Gm25: Lines, Notes & What to Watch vs. Rangers

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins (14-9-1) have won three of their last four games to ascend to a playoff position in the East Division. The Penguins will finish their five-game homestand Tuesday night against the New York Rangers (10-10-3) at PPG Paints Arena.

Don’t forget it’s a rare 6 p.m. start.

The Penguins beat New York 5-1 on Sunday after Sidney Crosby capped off three goals scored in 61 seconds, and the Penguins clamped down defensively.

The team leads the Philadelphia Flyers by two points in the East and is tied with the Boston Bruins, but both teams have two games in hand.

The Penguins will turn to Tristan Jarry, who has upped his record to 9-7-1 with an .897 save percentage and 3.12 GAA. Though he has seven wins since Feb. 14 and upped his save percentage by 30 points.

New York started Alexander Georgiev in both games of their back-to-backs last weekend. Igor Shesterkin is banged up, and Georgiev was pulled late in the first period on Sunday. Third goalie Keith Kincaid will get the start.

The Penguins have won four of five against New York, but through the NHL loser point system, the Rangers are just 1-2-2 against the Penguins.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Jared McCann is out day-to-day and will not play on Tuesday. Evan Rodrigues is a good bet to get the spot, but that’s unconfirmed.

Expected Pittsburgh Penguins Lines & Special Teams

LW	C	RW
Jake Guentzel	Sidney Crosby	Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker	Evgeni Malkin	Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen	Ryan Poehling	Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn	Sam Poulin	Drew O'Connor

LD	RD
Brian Dumoulin	Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson	Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph	Jan Rutta

LW	C	RW
Chris Kreider	Mika Zibanejad	Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin	Ryan Strome	Colin Blackwell
Alexis Lafreniere	Filip Chytil	Kappo Kaako
Philip Di Giuseppi	Kevin Rooney	Vitali Kravstov

Ryan Lindgren	Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller	Jacob Trouba
Libor Hajek	Brendan Smith

SPECIAL TEAMS

TEAM	Power Play	Penalty Kill
Pittsburgh Penguins	24.1% (7-29, 11th)	72% (7-25, 28th)
Vancouver Canucks	22.2% (6-27, 17th)	60% (10-25, 32nd)

What to Watch

The Rangers like to play with speed and play aggressively. The Pittsburgh Penguins like that, as well. However, not only did the Penguins use the Rangers’ speed against them.

The Penguins played a textbook game out of their own zone. The puck support was level 10, which allowed them to quickly evade the New York forecheck.

Also, and just as importantly, the Penguins shutdown the low-to-high game. The Rangers defenseman were not as involved as they would like.

Can the Penguins maintain that defensive discipline?

Will the Rangers have an answer to the Penguins breakout rush, which is reviving their season?

https://pittsburghhockey.nationalhockeynow.com/rangers-vs-pittsburgh-penguins-betting-preview-march-9-2021/

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Notes

*Jared McCann will join the list of injured Penguins. Colton Sceviour was waived on Monday.

Position, Player (Consecutive Games Missed, Total Games Missed)

D Juuso Riikola (20 consecutive, 20 total)
F Jason Zucker (7 consecutive, 7 total)
D Mark Friedman (2 consecutive, 2 total)
F Colton Sceviour (2 consecutive, 2 total)

*The Penguins have points in 11 of their last 12 games versus New York (8-1-3) and is 12-3-3 in its last 18 games.

*Overall, the Penguins earned points in seven of their last 10 games overall (7-3-0).

*Evgeni Malkin has a four-game point streak (2g, 4a) and can establish a season-long five-game point streak. He also has points in six-straight home games (2g, 7a).

*Sidney Crosby has 199 career multi-assist games. His next will make him the 22nd player in NHL history to have 200 or more games with multiple assists, moving him into a three-way tie with Doug Gilmour (200) and Bobby Clarke (200) for the 20 most multi-assist games in NHL history.