Penguins

Penguins Game 81 Preview: Sullivan Puts Lines in a Blender, Crosby v. McDavid

Published

2 years ago

April 26, 2022

Pittsburgh Penguins Game vs. Edmonton Oilers

But once a year, hockey fans in Pittsburgh are treated to the Connor McDavid show. Of course, Penguins fans get 41 homes games a year with one of the greatest of all time, Sidney Crosby. The second fiddles aren’t too bad either, as Leon Draisaitl and Evgeni Malkin are involved. The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena in a battle of historically talented franchises.

The puck drops just after 7 p.m.

The Penguins are just one point ahead of the Washington Capitals for third place in the Metro and Washington has one game in hand. The Penguins trail the Boston Bruins by two points in a possible battle for the top wild card.

On Saturday, the Penguins crushed the hapless Detroit Red Wings 7-2 but faceplanted against the equally hapless Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, 4-1.

“We weren’t good enough to win,” was about all head coach Mike Sullivan could muster about his team’s disinterested loss.

Tuesday morning, head coach Mike Sullivan put his lines in a blender, and none of the four lines are intact. A week after Sullivan said Bryan Rust helped keep Evgeni Malkin on track, Rust will return to the top line with Sidney Crosby.

Rickard Rakell, who had three points on Saturday, will play with Malkin, and those are just the start of the changes.

The Edmonton Oilers have dominated the second half of the season. They’re 24-11-3 (7th, NHL) since Feb. 1 and 8-2-1 (5th, NHL) since April 1. In a display of offense not seen since the early days of Crosby-Malkin, McDavid and Draisaitl have soared past 100 points. McDavid has 43 goals and 118 points, while Draisaitl has 55 goals and 108 points.

Draisaitl also broke Wayne Gretzky’s record for power-play goals. Draisaitl has 24, breaking Gretzky’s mark of 20.

It should be a lot of fun.

“The transition game becomes that much more important. Our transition has to be quick and efficient. We have to make good decisions with puck not to feed their transition,” Sullivan said.

Casey DeSmith will likely start for the Penguins.

Expected Pittsburgh Penguins Lines:

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

Goalie
Tristan Jarry
Casey DeSmith

Expected Oilers Lines per PuckPedia.com:

Kane-McDavid-Yamamoto

McLeod-Draisaitl-Hyman

Foegele–Nugent-Hopkins–Ryan

Brassard-Shore-Kassian

Defence:

Keith-Bouchard

Kulak-Barrie

Russel-Ceci

Goalie:

Mike Smith (expected)

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Notes

*It’s the first meeting between the teams in Pittsburgh since Nov. 2, 2019.

*The Penguins have points in 19 of their last 20 games against the Oilers (15-1-4) dating back to December 5, 2007, with the lone regulation loss coming earlier this season.

*Rickard Rakell has 24 points (11-13-24) in 28 games against Edmonton in his career. Both of his two career hat tricks were against the Oilers (Feb. 25, 2018, and Mar. 30, 2019.

*Despite only playing in 39 games this season, Evgeni Malkin sits one goal shy of hitting the 20-goal plateau for the 13th time in his career.

*It’s the ninth head-to-head matchup of Crosby and McDavid. Although McDavid has the edge in points (14-5), Crosby and the Penguins are 7-1-0, dating back to their first head-to-head matchup on Nov. 8, 2016.

*In 36 career games versus the Oilers, Carter has recorded 36 points (22-14-36).

*Edmonton has the fourth-ranked power play (25.7%) but the 18th-ranked PK (79.2%). The Penguins PK remains second (85.7%), but the power play has fallen to 18th (20.7%).

Pittsburgh Penguins Betting, DraftKings Promo:

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The “Bet Against Dan and Make Money” pick on Sunday was perfect if you bet against me. The picks today are all about offense. McDavid against the Penguins defense and Casey DeSmith…I’m going to take a big flyer on McDavid.

First, Jeff Carter has 22 goals in 36 career games against Edmonton. We’re taking Big Jeff to knock one home (+240).

We also like the draw after 60 minutes. If the game is close, neither team will risk a point–that’s the problem with an out-of-conference game at the end of the season. If the game hits OT, that pays (+350).

But, the Oilers are a big payday to win (+140). So, I’m taking the Oilers in OT.