The Penguins are heading to Tampa Bay as the Lightning gear up for a playoff run.
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (29-32-11, 69 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (40-25-5, 85 points, 3rd place Atlantic Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SN-PIT for the Pittsburgh area, FanDuel Sports Network around Tampa, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: This road trip ends Thursday with a trip to Buffalo. After that there are only eight games left in the regular season, which wraps up on April 17 at home against the Washington Capitals.
Opponent Track: The Lightning remain in the hunt with the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs for the top seed in the Atlantic Division, but two straight losses to the Utah Hockey Club and Vegas Golden Knights has left Tampa Bay back in third place.
Season Series: Tampa Bay has two wins in two matchups in Pittsburgh so far this season, starting with a 3-2 overtime victory in November followed by a 5-2 win in January.
Hidden Stat: Former Penguin Jake Guentzel is tied with Brayden Point for the Lightning goalscoring lead with 34.
Hidden Stat II: This campaign marks the second time in Tampa Bay history the franchise has ever had four players reach 30 goals in the same season, with Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov joining Guentzel and Point:
30+ goal scorers, party of four pic.twitter.com/JBgaYF92V8
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) March 24, 2025
Getting to know the Lightning
Projected lines (from Sunday’s game)
FORWARDS
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Yanni Gourde
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Nick Paul — Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening
DEFENSEMEN
Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh
Goalies: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jonas Johansson
Scratches: Mitchell Chaffee, Cam Atkinson, Jonas Johansson
IR: None
- The Lightning have been going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, starting periodically over the winter and happening consistently since February.
- Both Vasilevskiy and Johansson have made starts in Lightning wins over the Pens this season. Johansson’s .939 save percentage against the Pens in January is the fourth-highest mark he’s recorded this season, per TampaBayLightning.com’s Benjamin Pierce.
- Emil Lilleberg was assessed a boarding minor in Sunday’s loss for a controversial hit on Tomas Hertl that left the Knights center’s status questionable going forward.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
- The Lightning have slipped behind in the race to the top of the Atlantic after losing five of their last eight games, most recently dropping consecutive losses to Utah and Vegas. Brandon Hagel said after Sunday’s loss to the Golden Knights that the Lightning need to start thinking forward to the playoffs:
“We have 12 games and kind of the message in here and throughout the guys is let’s start building something here. It’s not just a light switch that turns on 12 games from now. It’s got to start now. Listen, I liked the effort tonight. Obviously, can we be better? Absolutely. We just got to continue to build on it. It can’t be one good, one bad, one good, one bad. You need to string some together. Like I said, it’s not going to be a light switch 12 games from now. It’s got to start now.” — Hagel on Tampa Bay’s mindset, per Lightning reporter Gabby Shirley
- Tonight’s game could have significant impact on the Lightning’s hopes of finishing on top of the division. Tampa Bay’s odds of finishing in the No. 1 spot in the Atlantic go up to 23.4 percent if the team wins in 60 minutes, but drops to just 10.5 percent with a regulation loss to the Pens, per MoneyPuck.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines (from Sunday’s game)
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Connor Dewar – Evgeni Malkin – Philip Tomasino
Joona Koppanen – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Boko Imama – Kevin Hayes – Danton Heinen
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Erik Karlsson / Conor Timmins
Ryan Graves / Vladislav Kolyachonok
Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea (upper body injury), Tommy Novak (lower body), Emil Bemstrom (undisclosed)
Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)
- Sidney Crosby, who is riding a seven-game point streak, is two shy of guaranteeing his record 20th point-per-game season.
Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points since the 4 Nations break (8-12-20) and now leads the NHL in 5 on 5 points for the season.
He’s 37 and has played much of that span at less than 100 percent health.— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) March 24, 2025
- The Penguins have 10 games left. As of now the team has the seventh-best odds for the top pick in the upcoming draft, per Tankathon.