Penguins vs. Blues, Game 58: Lines, Notes & How to Watch

ST. LOUIS — The Pittsburgh Penguins get to do something today that they haven’t experienced very often lately.

They’re going to be playing a team that is struggling about as much as they are.

And seems to be at least as miserable.

The Penguins, losers of five of their past six games, will face St. Louis, which is 0-3-1 in its past four, at 3:38 p.m. Eastern at Enterprise Center.

While Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has, for the most part, refrained from publicly skewering his players during the team’s ongoing troubles, his St. Louis counterpart, Craig Berube, had no such reservations after a 3-2 overtime loss to Vancouver at home Thursday night.

While Berube didn’t specify the players with whom he is upset, he left no doubt that he is unhappy about what he has been witnessing.

“Our best players don’t play with any passion,” he told reporters. “No emotion, and no inspiration, at all. They don’t play inspired hockey. You cannot play in this league without emotion, grit and being inspired. They’re getting paid lots of month, and they’re not doing the job. End of story. That’s it. That’s what it boils down to.”

Berube didn’t offer an explanation for that — “You have to ask them,” he said — but did put forth a troubling theory.

“I guess they don’t care about the team,” he said.

It is, to be sure, a different team than the one that captured the franchise’s only Stanley Cup in 2019. Or, for that matter, the one that was playing here just a few weeks ago.

Blues management, resigned to sitting out the Stanley Cup playoffs, traded skilled winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the New York Rangers, then shipped captain Ryan O’Reilly and forward Noel Acciari to Toronto.

The reaction inside the locker room to having the roster gutted as the NHL trade deadline came into view was not good, but probably was predictable.

“It just looks like we don’t want to play,” forward Alexey Toropchenko told reporters.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, so desperate for a victory, can only hope that continues to be the case this afternoon.

Expected Pittsburgh Penguins Lines

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell

Zucker-Malkin-Rust

McGinn-Carter-Heinen

O’Connor-Blueger-Archibald

Defense

Dumoulin-Letang

Pettersson-Petry

Joseph-Rutta

Goalies

Jarry

DeSmith

Expected St. Louis Blues Lines, per PuckPedia.com

Saad-Thomas-Kyrou

Barabashev-Schenn-Buchnevich

Blais-Brown-Leivo

Toropchenko-Walker-Pitlick

Defense

Leddy-Parayko

Scandella-Faulk

Tucker-Bortuzzo

Goalies

Binnington

Greiss

Special Teams

Pittsburgh Penguins power play: 43 for 199, 21.6%, 15th

Pittsburgh Penguins penalty-kill: 37 for 183, 79.8%, 15th

St. Louis Blues power play: 35 for 169, 20.7%, 18th

St. Louis Blues penalty-kill: 35 for 145, 75.9%, 22nd (tie)

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Notes

The Pittsburgh Penguins are 4-1 in their past five games against the Blues, as well as 4-1 in their past five visits to St. Louis.

Tristan Jarry is 4-0 in four career appearances against the Blues, with a .957 save percentage and 1.14 goals-against average.

Brock McGinn, who doesn’t have a point in 24 games, might be one of the few Penguins players happy to see Jordan Binnington, if he’s in goal for St. Louis. McGinn has scored on two of three career shots against Binnington.

Bryan Rust has 12 points, four of them goals, in nine career games against St. Louis.

Jason Zucker has 20 points in 23 games against the Blues, most of both while playing for Minnesota.

St. Louis is 13-13-3 on home ice.

The Blues have lost 18 of 27 games decided by three or more goals.

St. Louis winger Brandon Saad, a Gibsonia native, has six goals and 11 assists in 19 career games against the Penguins.

The Blues and their opponents have finished with the same number of shots in five games this season. St. Louis has won two of those.

St. Louis has allowed 82 second-period goals, third-most in the NHL.

How to Watch

TV: ABC

Radio: 105.9 the X