* The Penguins enter tonight’s game with an active 15-game home winning streak against the Blue Jackets (15-0-0) dating back to Dec. 21, 2015. It’s the second-longest home winning streak against one opponent in franchise history (18-game home win streak vs. Atlanta/Winnipeg from Mar. 24, 2007-Jan. 4, 2019), and is the longest such active streak in the NHL.
During this streak, Pittsburgh has outscored Columbus by a 61-30 margin and have scored three or more goals in 14 of the 15 games. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have also shared the scoring during this streak.
The Penguins captain has notched 61 points (20G-41A) in 43 career games versus the Blue Jackets. Only two players in NHL history have more points against Columbus than Crosby: Patrick Kane and Pavel Datsyuk.
Crosby’s 1.42 points-per-game average versus the Blue Jackets ranks third in NHL history (min. 20 GP) behind Nikita Kucherov (1.52) and Joe Sakic (1.46).
* The Penguins have scored three or more goals in 20 of their last 25 games against the Blue Jackets, while 15 of those 25 games have been four-plus goal efforts.
* The Penguins are 10-5-3 dating back to Nov. 27 and in this span, no team has scored more goals than the Penguins. During this span, Rickard Rakell ranks third in the NHL in goals with 11.
* Tristan Jarry has helped Pittsburgh pick up points in nine of his last 12 starts, going 7-3-2 in that span. He is 8-2-1 in his career versus Columbus with a 2.63 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
* Matt Grzelcyk’s assist on Sunday night helped him hit the 20-assist plateau for the third time in his career (also 2021-22 and 2022-23). His career high of assists is 22 set in 75 games with Boston in 22-23.
The defenseman now has points in four of his last five games (4A). Among defensemen who played for a different NHL team last season, only five blueliners have more points than Pittsburgh’s offseason acquisition.
* Defenseman Erik Karlsson enters tonight’s game with nine points (2G-7A) over his last nine games. Going back further, Karlsson has recorded 16 points (2G-14A) over his last 18 games and in that span, only four NHL blueliners have recorded more points.
With his multi-point outing on Sunday night (1G-1A), Karlsson surpassed Gary Suter for the 15th-most points in NHL history among defensemen.
* Kevin Hayes found the back of the next in his second game since being re-inserted back into the Pittsburgh lineup, giving him five goals on the year. At 5-on-5 play, Hayes’ 0.98 goals per 60 minutes ranks fifth on the Penguins.
Hayes has 24 career points (9G-24A) in 30 career games against the Blue Jackets. It’s the most points he’s recorded against any one team.
* Sidney Crosby is just one goal shy of tying Hall-of-Famer Bobby Hull for the sixth-most goals with one franchise in NHL history. He’s three points shy of tying Hall-of-Famer Joe Sakic for the fifth-most points with one franchise in NHL history.
Sidney Crosby is also just four face-off wins shy of becoming the NHL’s all-time face-off wins leader since the stat started being tracked in the 1997-98 season.
