The Pens head out to start a midwest road trip. First stop, St. Louis
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (30-34-11, 71 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ St. Louis Blues (41-28-7, 89 points, 4th place Central Division)
When: 8:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sports Midwest in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: Welcome to the last extended road swing of 2024-25. The Pens start a three-game-in-four-day stretch today, heading to Dallas for a 3:00pm eastern Saturday afternoon game and then up to Chicago for a 6:00pm start on Sunday. Pittsburgh welcomes those same Blackhawks to the Steel City for the next home game on Tuesday April 8th.
Opponent Track: The Blues lost to the Penguins 5-3 back on March 13th. It was a big game for St. Louis and they looked pretty apathetic. Apparently that was their wakeup call, STL hasn’t lost since having reeled off a current 10-game winning streak. That included some dramatics against Detroit on Tuesday night in their most recent game. Jordan Kyrou scored with 29 seconds left in regulation to force OT, Cam Fowler won it for the Blue Notes in extra time.
Season Series: As mentioned above, Pittsburgh took round one 5-3 a couple weeks ago. Tonight is the second and final game.
Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, goaltender Tristan Jarry has played in eight career games versus St. Louis going 7-1-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average, .926 save percentage and one shutout.
Getting to know the Blues
Projected lines (from Tuesday’s game)
FORWARDS
Jake Neighbours – Robert Thomas – Pavel Buchnevich
Dylan Holloway – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Zach Bolduc – Oskar Sundqvist – Jimmy Snuggerud
Alexei Toropchenko -Radek Faksa – Sean Walker
DEFENSEMEN
Cam Fowler / Nick Leddy
Philip Broberg / Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter / Tyler Tucker
Goalies: Jordan Binnington, Joel Hofer
Scratches: Mathieu Joseph, Alex Texier, Dalibor Dvorsky, Matthew Kessel, Colton Parayko
IR: Torey Krug
—Snuggerud, a former Rutger McGroarty US teammate and fellow 2022 first round pick, made his NHL debut on Tuesday against Detroit. Hopes are high for this 20-year old after he’s had three very impressive seasons in the collegiate ranks at the University of Minnesota.
—Put Thomas’ name and number (18) in big bold letters up on the board in the locker-room today as the key player to watch out for. Thomas has 17 points during this 10-game winning streak (2G+15A), second most in the NHL since March 14th (Nikita Kucherov).
—Kyrou with eight goals in the last 10 isn’t too far behind in the attention battle.
—Many around Bluesland are wondering why Dvorsky, a 19-year old former top-10 pick who has spent most of the year in the AHL, has been called up to the NHL only to become a scratch lately. See, other head coaches “hate” young players too!
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—Fowler has been coming on strong with nine points (2G+7A) in the last 10 games, including the OT GWG in the last game. The long-time former Duck hasn’t jumped off the page but has settled in here recently with the Blues in a major way. STL only had to give up a second round pick while getting back a fourth round pick for Anaheim to retain some money and leave the Blues with a $4.0 million cap hit for this season and next on Fowler. Not a bad piece of business for them.
—Toropchenko scored such a pretty goal against the Pens a few weeks ago; skating the puck the entire length of the ice, cutting through and around defenders and then making a deft little finish. Hard to imagine that’s only one of four goals he has this season in 74 games!
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rutger McGroarty – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Connor Dewar – Rickard Rakell – Ville Koivunen
Philip Tomasino – Kevin Hayes – Noel Acciari
Danton Heinen – Blake Lizotte – Joona Koppanen
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Conor Timmins / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Tommy Novak (lower body), Evgeni Malkin (day-to-day upper body injury), Boko Imama (bicep surgery, out for season)
Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)
—All the time has granted a little rest, the team practiced on Monday and Wednesday and got a day off on Tuesday. Coach Mike Sullivan said a few players are banged up but still going to try and play, thus the emergency recall of Joona Koppanen.
—Speaking of, welcome back Joona Koppanen. Since last game, the Penguins waived the ineffective and often invisible Emil Bemstrom and have shuttled in Koppanen back to the NHL in Bemstrom’s place. As of now, Bemstrom remains on the NHL roster but can be sent back to the AHL at any point down the stretch.
—Joseph and Malkin skated before practice together yesterday, Novak was not out there. One is starting to get the feeling the “day to day” injury for Novak out since March 9th might be more than that with now two weeks left in the season.
Like a fine wine…
Sidney Crosby eclipsed the 80-point plateau recently, making him one of the few players that age or older to ever do so. That age-37 season is so crazy how it was the last truly great year for players like Sakic, Lemieux and Gretzky. It’ll be very interesting to see how Crosby ages into his senior years as an NHL player. From Pens PR:
With his goal against Buffalo on Thursday, Sidney Crosby notched a goal to record his 80th point of the season. He became the 12th player in NHL history to tally 80 or more points in their age 37 season or older. He then followed that up with an overtime winner against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday for his 81st point of the season:
Players to Record 80+ Points at Age 37 or Older, NHL History
Player Age Year Points
Gordie Howe 40 1968-69 103
Joe Sakic 37 2006-07 100
Johnny Bucyk 37 1972-73 93
Mario Lemieux 37 2002-03 91
Wayne Gretzky 37 1997-98 90
Jean Ratelle 37 1977-78 84
Johnny Bucyk 40 1975-76 83
Gordie Howe 39 1967-68 82
Jean Beliveau 37 1968-69 82
Adam Oates 38 2000-01 82
Sidney Crosby 37 2024-25 81
Brendan Shanahan 37 2005-06 81
Johnny Bucyk 39 1974-75 81
Joe Pavelski 37 2021-22 81
Teemu Selanne 40 2010-11 80
Only two players (Gordie Howe and Johnny Bucyk) appear on this list multiple times, and both of them were competing in the 1960’s/70’s as older guys, interesting to see how in more modern times that no one has been able to hold up at advanced ages that much against the young bucks as time goes by. Call it a hunch, but I’d bet Crosby joins them.
Career year for the Rusty Razor?
Bryan Rust has been a good player in this league for a long time and frequent linemate of Sidney Crosby, it seems odd that his personal bests are under 30 goals and 60 points in a season. Then again, with his unfortunate penchant to miss large chunks of every year, it makes sense. From the PR department again:
Bryan Rust is having an exceptional year as he is currently just two goals away from matching his career-high total of 28 goals set in the 2023-24 season, and three points shy of tying his career high of 58 points achieved in the 2021-22 season.
Most Goals, Rust’s Career
Season GP G
2023-24 62 28
2019-20 55 27
2024-25 63 26
2021-22 60 24Most Points, Rust’s Career
Season GP PTS
2021-22 60 58
2019-20 55 56
2023-24 62 56
2024-25 63 55
Knock on wood and all but if Rust finishes out all the rest of the Pens’ games this season that will get him up to 71 appearances on the season. He did manage to play in 81 games in 2022-23 but his other career-highs besides that are: 72, 69, 64*, 62 and 60. (*being current).
Rust is also two goals away from 200 in his career.