The Pens gear up for the first of two games in a row against Chicago
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (31-34-12, 74 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Chicago Blackhawks (21-45-10, 52 points, 8th place Central Division)
When: 6:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and Chicago Sports Network in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: After not seeing Chicago in the first 77 games of the 2024-25 season, the Pens will deal with them twice in a row with the next game back in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Pens then get two days off before their final road game of the season coming up next Friday in New Jersey before returning home to play the Bruins a week from today in Game No 81. The season ends with a 4/17 home game against Washington.
Opponent Track: The Blackhawks found themselves on the wrong side of history in their last game by giving up two goals to Alex Ovechkin, watching him tie Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 career goals. Chicago was winning that game 3-2 at the start of the third period before slumping away to a 5-3 loss on Friday. Overall it’s been tough times, in the last four weeks (since March 8th) CHI has a dreadful 1-10-2 record as their tear-down build continues to scrape the bottom.
Season Series: It’d be difficult to find a season series more delayed than this one. PIT/CHI plays tonight in Game No. 78 of the season for the Pens, then again on Tuesday back in Pittsburgh to knock out a whole season series within a few days.
Hidden Stat: In the Sidney Crosby era (2005-present), the Penguins have only won three out of 12 games played in Chicago (3-6-3). That record has been boosted by Pittsburgh winning in both of their last two trips to the Windy City!
Getting to know the Blackhawks
Projected lines (from yesterday’s practice)
FORWARDS
Ryan Donato – Connor Bedard – Ilya Mikheyev
Teuvo Teravainen – Frank Nazar – Tyler Bertuzzi
Landon Slaggert – Oliver Moore – Philipp Kurashev
Lukas Reichel – Joe Veleno – Nick Foligno
DEFENSEMEN
Alex Vlasic / Sam Rinzel
Kevin Korchinski / Connor Murphy
Wyatt Kaiser / Artem Levshunov
Goalies: Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom
Scratches: Jason Dickinson, Colton Dach, Pat Maroon, TJ Brodie, Ethan Del Mastro, Louis Crevier, Alec Martinez
IR: Shea Weber, Laurent Brossoit
—First, the irony and absurdity that literal Hockey Hall of Famer Shea Weber is on Chicago’s books, where he’ll be next season as well. Chicago’s full circle from dealing out LTIR-retired contracts like Marian Hossa and Brent Seabrook to taking on the cap hit of their own.
—This lineup has four new rookies all 20 or younger (Moore, Rinzel, Levshunov, Korchinski) finishing out the stretch in the NHL much the same way the Pens are giving McGroarty and Koivunen a late look. Levshunov, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, might be the most intriguing to watch after a very impressive age-18 season in the AHL has him primed to be an NHL impact player sooner than later.
—Before and after those callups, we’re dealing with a very young lineup that’s gotten younger over the season after dealing Seth Jones, Taylor Hall and Petr Mrazek away. There’s a few random vets here and there, but counting scratches there are 13 players in the 19-23 year old range with the NHL club right now.
—They’re young enough where Reichel was scratched for last game due to missing a team meeting by oversleeping thanks to a phone battery failing him. We’ve all been there but this isn’t a very professional operation at the moment with large doses of youth and inexperience permeating the team, and not in a good way. Many fans yearn for starting anew with young players, but Chicago’s current situation shows the growing pains and bumps along the way that come with competing in the world’s toughest league with so many learning the ropes at the same time.
—When Reichel gets back into the lineup today it sadly looks like it will be at the expense of Pat Maroon, who has announced his retirement at season’s end. Would be nice to see the big guy play some more before he goes out. On the vet front, Brodie’s been almost unplayably bad (and on this team it’s saying something) and Martinez joined Matt Grzelcyk in the “so bad contenders don’t even want the depth on an expiring contract at the deadline” area.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—Bedard has failed to meet a lot of the lofty tags and designation he was given upon entering the league but he’s put up 120 points in 144 games as a teenager in the NHL without a ton of team support or structure. It’s probably important to remember that Bedard was the second youngest full-time NHL player in the league this year (behind SJ’s Macklin Celebrini). There’s always a hot take looming but his career path might be heading for more Nathan MacKinnon than Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid. That’s not too shabby either.
—Bertuzzi has three more years on his contract and in a quiet moment would be forgiven for wondering just what he signed up for in his career by going to Chicago last summer as a free agent.
—It’ll be interesting to see if Knight and the Hawks can grow together. A former first round pick in 2019, Knight made it to the NHL super-quick and was looking like a future star by 2022 and age 21 when he inked a contract to match (three years, $4.5m cap hit). Since then, as only goalies can, he’s floundered. The skill is there somewhere but he’s certainly a player with a loud ticking clock to get back on track before he skids out of control.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rutger McGroarty – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Rickard Rakell – Evgeni Malkin – Ville Koivunen
Danton Heinen – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Connor Dewar – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Erik Karlsson / Conor Timmins
Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic (Tristan Jarry played yesterday)
Potential Scratches: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Tommy Novak (lower body), Boko Imama (bicep surgery, out for season)
Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)
—We purposely inverted the bottom-six forward lines from how the Penguins list them due to usage. Heinen-Acciari-Lizotte all played 13-15 even strength minutes yesterday against Dallas. The Dewar-Hayes-Tomasino line were all in a 5-6 minute range. Some of that was due to the Stars’ style fit better for capable players along the boards to take more shifts and some due to performance. It certainly was the right call since Heinen and Lizotte teamed up for the game winner yesterday.
—Joona Koppanen quietly got sent back to the minors over the weekend since Evgeni Malkin returned to full health.
—No official word on the goalie for today but Alex Nedeljkovic could be in-line to start only his second game in the last four weeks due to the back-to-back. Pretty crazy how things have shifted from last year at this time when the Pens were roaring down the stretch and Nedeljkovic was in net for the last 13 games. This year it’s been a strong finish but with Nedeljkovic mostly watching from the bench.