Game Notes
Rickard Rakell has 21 points (7G-14A) in 22 career games against the Red Wings. He has points in six of his last 11 games versus them (3G-9A).
Sidney Crosby has 46 points (18G-28A) in 36 career games against the Detroit Red Wings. He has multiple points in eight of his last 11 outings against them (7G-12A).
Michael Bunting has notched 14 points (6G-8A) in 12 career games against the Red Wings. His teams are 10-2-0 in games that he dresses against them.
Erik Karlsson has an active six-game point streak (4G-9A) and Sidney Crosby (4G-7A) has an active five-game point streak versus Detroit.
The Penguins own an overall record of 390-90-48 when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin record a point in a game.
Evgeni Malkin has seven mutli-point efforts this season, and only Kirill Kaprizov (10), Nathan MacKinnon (10), Martin Necas (8), Jack Eichel (8) and Cale Makar (8) have more games with multiple points than Malkin this season. Malkin leads the Penguins with 18 points (5G-13A) in 17 games. In all 17 games this season, Malkin has either recorded zero or two-plus points. Pittsburgh has gone 4-2-1 in games where Malkin has recorded a point.
Sidney Crosby, who has notched five goals over his last six games, enters tonight’s contest just two goals shy of becoming just the 21st player in NHL history to reach 600 goals. Crosby is looking to join Washington’s Alex Ovechkin as the only active players to accomplish this milestone. Throughout franchise history, only Mario Lemieux has scored more goals in a Penguins sweater than Crosby. Among first-overall draft picks, only Ovechkin and Lemieux have scored more goals than Crosby.
Ovechkin scored his 600th NHL goal on March 12, 2018. Prior to that, the last time anyone reached 600 goals in the league came on Jan. 4, 2016 when Jarome Iginla found the back of the net against Los Angeles as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.
The Penguins enter tonight’s game with points in nine-consecutive home games versus Detroit, going 7-0-2 dating back to Jan. 13, 2018. It’s the team’s second-longest active home point streak against any one team. During this streak, Pittsburgh has outscored Detroit by a 47-22 margin and the team’s power play is operating at a 45.2% success rate (14/31).
After his two-point night last Friday in Washington, defenseman Erik Karlsson enters tonight’s game one point shy of surpassing Doug Wilson for sole possession of 16th place on the NHL’s all-time points list among defensemen. He is also one assist shy of tying Borje Salming for 15th place on the NHL’s all-time assist list among blueliners.
Finally, Karlsson is tied with Hall-of-Famer Peter Forsberg for the 8th-most assists by a Swedish-born player in NHL history and is one assist shy of tying Salming for the second-most assists by a Swedish-born defenseman in league history.
Sidney Crosby has 10 points (5G-5A) in seven games here at PPG Paints Arena compared to six points (1G-5A) in 10 road games this season. Crosby has multiple points in three of his last four home games and four of seven games at PPG Paints Arena overall.
Sidney Crosby enters tonight’s game just two assists shy of tying Hallof-Famer Joe Sakic for the 13th-most assists in NHL history. He’s also looking to tie Sakic for the sixth-most assists by a player with a single franchise in league history.
Evgeni Malkin has been historically successful against the Detroit Red Wings. In 31 career games against them, he has recorded 45 points (18G-27A), and has points in 15 of his last 18 games (11G-17A) versus Detroit. His 1.45 points-per-game average against them is second in the NHL among active players and tied for sixth in NHL history (min 25 GP).
y Crosby enters tonight’s game just two even-strength goals shy of tying Teemu Selanne for the 12th most even-strength goals in NHL history.
Evgeni Malkin enters tonight’s game just one even-strength goal shy of tying Jaromir Jagr for third place on the Penguins all-time even-strength goals list.
Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang have combined on 305 goals in their careers. They are one goal shy of tying Boston’s Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr for the second-most goals combined on by a forward-defenseman duo in NHL history.
Erik Karlsson has 35 points (9G-26A) in 32 games, and Kris Letang has 30 points (8G-22A) in 34 career contests versus Detroit. Their goal totals are tied for first and second among active defensemen versus the Red Wings, respectively. Karlsson’s 1.09 points-per-game average leads all active defensemen against Detroit, while Letang’s 0.88 points-per-game average is eighth best among league blueliners (min. 10 GP).
