Black Friday hockey
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (8-12-4, 20 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ Boston Bruins (11-10-3, 25 points, 3rd place Atlantic Division)
When: 6:30 p.m. ET
How to Watch: National game on TNT, steaming on Max
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens go back home tomorrow to meet up with the Calgary Flames. Up after that is a home game against Florida on Tuesday and then Pittsburgh hits the road a week from today to head up to Manhattan.
Opponent Track: The Bruins are getting the immediate bounce back from firing coach Jim Montgomery, going 3-1-0 under interim coach Joe Sacco so far. Last game out, Boston downed the Islanders 6-3 on Wednesday.
Season Series: This is the first of three PIT/BOS games this season and the only trip for the Pens to Boston this year. The Bruins come to the ‘Burgh on March 1st and April 13th for the others.
Hidden Stat: The Pens are 4-2-2 when Blake Lizotte has been in the lineup this season (stick tap Pens PR).
Getting to know the Bruins
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Morgan Geekie – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand – Elias Lindholm – Justin Brazeau
Trent Frederic – Charlie Coyle – Tyler Johnson
John Beecher – Mark Kastelic – Cole Koepke
DEFENSEMEN
Mason Lohrei / Charlie MacAvoy
Parker Wotherspoon / Brandon Carlo
Nikita Zadorov / Andrew Peeke
Goalies: Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo
IR: Hampus Lindholm
Potential Scratches: none
—Notable stats after the coaching change (four games): Pastrnak (0G+5A), Marchand (3G+1A), E. Lindholm (0G+4A), Zacha (2G+1A), MacAvoy (0G+1A)
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—After a protracted holdout and contract negotiation this summer it’s been a tough start to the year for Jeremy Swayman so far. Maybe that should have been easy to see coming since he didn’t have a training camp and hit the ground running, but the goaltending slip was a big factor in why Jim Montgomery lost his job with the Bruins.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Bryan Rust – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Philip Tomasino
Anthony Beauvillier – Blaze Lizotte – Drew O’Connor
Matt Nieto – Noel Acciari – Kevin Hayes
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Jack St. Ivany
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Ryan Graves, Jesse Puljujarvi, Owen Pickering (sick)
IR: Cody Glass (concussion)
—It was still unknown if Pickering would be making the trip to Beantown after being a late scratch on Wednesday night due to illness. The coaches decided to hold him away from practice to stay away from the rest of the group, which doesn’t seem like a good sign.
Multi-point Sid
From Pens PR:
Sidney Crosby notched two assists on Wednesday night, giving him points in back-to-back games (1G-2A) and points in six of his last seven games overall (2G-5A). It marked Crosby’s 476th career multi-point game, which is one back of Steve Yzerman (477) for seventh place on the NHL’s all-time multi-point games list.
Most Multi-Point Games, NHL History
Player Multi-Point Games
Wayne Gretzky 824
Jaromir Jagr 540
Marcel Dionne 513
Mark Messier 513
Gordie Howe 511
Mario Lemieux 497
Steve Yzerman 477
Sidney Crosby 476