After sweeping their way through New Jersey and New York, the Vancouver Canucks now take their three-game winning streak into Pittsburgh for game five of their seven-game trip.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been playing good hockey since the middle of December. Since December 12th, the Pens have a 9-3-1 record and have benefited from their power play stepping up and scoring 12 goals in those 13 games. Their penalty kill has also helped over the winning stretch – they've only allowed three power play goals against in their last 10 games.
Even into their late thirties, both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby continue to be stars in this league.
Crosby is having another dominant offensive season at age 36. He leads the Penguins with 22 goals this season and has added 19 assists to make him over a point-per-game player with 41 points through 39 games. On top of the offence, Crosby has continued his domination in the faceoff dot. He’s won 60.1% of his draws this season.
Malkin is no slouch either, he’s scored 15 goals and added 20 assists to be at 35 points through 39 games. His advanced stats show very well this season – each of the fancy stats like Corsi, xGF%, and shot share are well over 50%.
The Pens have a three-headed monster on defence. Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson lead the way in ice time, both averaging over 24 minutes a night. And then, Marcus Pettersson comes in at 22:31 per night.
Pettersson and Letang play together on the top pairing while Pierre-Olivier Joseph joins Karlsson to round out the top-four.
Jake Guentzel is a name we have to mention. He’s leading the Penguins in points with 44 through 39 games. Guentzel has 18 goals this season, with 15 of them coming at even-strength. Guentzel plays left wing on the top line that is centred by Crosby while Rickard Rakell flanks the right wing.
The Penguins are currently in the mushy middle of the Eastern Conference with so many teams fighting away for the two wild card spots. Their recent string of wins has been extremely helpful for the Pens fans hoping for a playoff push, but the team is an interesting one to watch since they have some very interesting trade chips.
Quick Hits on the Competition:
- The Penguins are among the least physical teams if you measure physicality by the hits stat. Their leading man is Noel Acciari with 62 hits in 32 games. For reference, the Canucks have three players with more hits than Acciari: Dakota Joshua-119, J.T. Miller-85, and Noah Juulsen-67.
- Expect a well-rested team as the Penguins have been sitting at home for a couple of days off after a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
- Tristan Jarry is your expected starter for the Pens. He’s made 26 starts this season and holds a .912% save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average. Though he is your expected starter, Alex Nedeljkovic has been great for the Pens lately and made 36 saves on 37 shots in Monday’s 4-1 win. Don’t be shocked if it’s not Jarry between the pipes on Thursday night – he was also pulled a few games ago after allowing three goals on seven shots.
- The Pens have the ninth-ranked penalty kill in the league and are sporting an 82.5% kill-rate.
- Even-strength play is going to be crucial in the game. The Pens ranked sixth in the league in five-on-five goal share. They’ve scored 86 goals and allowed 71 against at five-on-five this season.
The Canucks are rolling on the road and now sit at 3-1-0 to begin their long road trip that transitions into the second-half of the regular season. After scoring just once in the opening game of the road trip, the offence has popped off in their ensuing three games – they scored six against the New Jersey Devils as well as six against the New York Rangers and then dropped five against the New York Islanders on the second night of a back-to-back.
Now, with a day off on Wednesday, the Canucks get back on to the ice for Thursday’s first game of the season against the Penguins.
The big story over the three wins has been the return of ‘The Lotto Line’.
Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller have been excellent since head coach Rick Tocchet put them together in the Devils game. The trio has combined for 18 points over three games with Pettersson leading the way -- notching eight points over his last three games and vaulting himself up to eighth in the league for points with 53 in 41 games.
Pettersson has also eclipsed the 20-goal mark with his five goals over the last three games. This is the fifth season in which Pettersson has scored 20 goals in his career. Since we are exactly at the halfway point of the season, Pettersson is on pace for 40 goals this year, something he has not accomplished in his career but came so close last season with 39 goals in 80 games.
Tocchet joked in the postgame media availability that he’d probably get killed in Vancouver if he broke up The Lotto Line. The trio has played 38 minutes together over the past three games and has been on the ice for eight goals scored and just two goals against.
With seven healthy defencemen, the Canucks have some options and the ability to give players a maintenance day. There’s confidence in Ian Cole, Noah Juulsen, Nikita Zadorov, and Tyler Myers to play in their system and bring a bit of offence, as we saw on Tuesday night.
