The Pens hit the road for a long, long trip
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (18-20-8, 44 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Seattle Kraken (17-22-5, 39 points, 8th place Atlantic Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcasting on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and MSG-B in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: It’s a brutal path ahead for the Pens. Tonight starts a stretch of three road games in four days, which is bad enough before seeing those games go from Buffalo tonight to Washington tomorrow and then all the way out to Los Angeles on Monday. After a mighty friendly turn of the schedule where the Pens were playing opponents who often traveled to them and played soon before, the worm turns and now its Pittsburgh who is in the tough spot built-in from the scheduling.
Opponent Track: The Sabres have been OK in the new year, going 3-2-1 in 2025 so far. This is the third game of three in a row for them; they got blown out 6-2 by Seattle but then rebounded to defeat Carolina 4-2 in their last game – proof you never quite know what they might do from game to game.
Season Series: There’s already been one PIT/BUF game way back on October 16th, and it was a memorable one where Sidney Crosby scored in OT to lift the Pens to a win. Evgeni Malkin also had a big game, recording four points (which included his 500th career goal). After tonight, the two teams meet one more time this season later on March 27th.
Hidden Stat: The Pens are just 1-3-1 in their last five trips to Buffalo, but do hold an overall record in the last 18 games of 12-5-1 against the Sabres, per Pens PR.
Getting to know the Sabres
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Jason Zucker — Ryan McLeod — Tage Thompson
J.J Peterka — Dylan Cozens — Alex Tuch
Zach Benson — Peyton Krebs — Jack Quinn
Beck Malenstyn — Tyson Kozak — Sam Lafferty
DEFENSEMEN
Rasmus Dahlin / Byram Bowen
Owen Power / Henri Jokiharju
Mattias Samuelsson / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and James Reimer
Scratches: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Jacob Bryson, Dennis Gilbert
IR: Jordan Greenway, Jiri Kulich
—It’s a full-on youth movement in Buffalo, and now just a matter of time (again) until these young players try to rise the tide of the team’s fortunes. There’s as many forwards 23-years old or under in the projected lineup as there are 24+ year-old forwards.
—Same story on defense and youth. Clifton, 29, is the “old” man of the group (though Dahlin has played far more NHL games). The rest of the players who are slated to dress tonight on the blueline are in the 22-25 year old range.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—Somebody has to score the points for bad teams as the old saying goes, and Jason Zucker is doing his part to be that somebody. Zucker (who celebrated turning 33 yesterday) is rockin’ and rollin’ with eight power play goals (and 14 PPP) this season and amped up his production to look mighty fine. He could be trade bait coming up, having only signed a one-year contract last summer with the Sabres.
—This is already the seventh NHL season for Dahlin. The former No. 1 overall pick is signed up basically forever (2032), having long-since inked a max. term contract with Buffalo. His stats are good and his ice time is through the roof, but he’s more workhorse and less spectacular than most of his peers as the top defensemen of the next generation like Quinn Hughes and Lane Hutson.
—And then you’ve got Power, where almost everything in the above paragraph applies from Dahlin to the next degree; as a former No. 1 overall pick it’s Power’s fourth full season, he’s signed for a long, long time (2031) and who knows when he and the Sabres reach the next level.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Beauvillier
Drew O’Connor – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
Blake Lizotte – Cody Glass – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Owen Pickering / P.O. Joseph
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist
Potential Scratches: Matt Nieto, Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves
IR: none
—The Pens had a small scare in practice yesterday, Rakell left the ice early with a hand issue. Coach Mike Sullivan said afterwards the team did not expect it to be an issue.
—Sullivan also said the Pens have, “sketched out a short-term plan” for how they will divvy up work between goalies, now that Tristan Jarry is off the NHL team and Joel Blomqvist is back. Blomqvist, btw, did not make it on the ice yesterday in practice, but since the team plays today and tomorrow it’s likely he will be back in an NHL game for the first time since November 7th very soon.
Road warriors
From the Pens:
Today, the Penguins begin their season-long seven-game road trip spanning a total of 15 days. It’s the longest road trip for Pittsburgh since their eight-game road swing nearly 30 years ago from Oct. 14-28, 1997 (NYR-MTL-TBL-FLA-SJS-EDM-VAN-CGY). Below is a look at the Penguins’ road point leaders:
Player GP G A PTS
Rickard Rakell 21 9 9 18
Evgeni Malkin 21 4 14 18
Sidney Crosby 21 3 14 17
Erik Karlsson 21 4 11 15
Bryan Rust 18 7 6 13
One more from the team’s PR:
Captain Sidney Crosby enters tomorrow’s game with points in 21 of his last 27 games (14G-21A) versus Buffalo. He has recorded at least one point in 50 of 60 career games played against them, while his 85 points (29G-56A) are the most he’s tallied against any non-Metropolitan Division opponent. Crosby enters tomorrow’s game with the sixth-highest career points-per-game average versus the Sabres (min. 20 GP):
Highest PTS/GM Average vs. Buffalo, NHL History
Player GP PTS PTS/GM
Mario Lemieux 40 70 1.75
Steve Yzerman 41 67 1.63
Pavel Bure 22 35 1.59
Bobby Orr 29 44 1.52
Wayne Gretzky 55 83 1.51
Sidney Crosby 60 85 1.42
Crosby is one of 11 players in NHL history to record 50 assists against Buffalo and is four points shy of tying Daniel Alfredsson (89) for the sixth-most points against the Sabres in NHL history.