Game Notes
The Penguins have scored three or more goals in 20 of their last 24 games against the Blue Jackets, while 15 of those 24 games have been four-plus goal efforts.
Tristan Jarry is 8-1-1 in his career versus Columbus with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
Bryan Rust has 15 points (4G-11A) in 22 career games against Columbus. He has an active three-game point streak against them (1G-3A) and has points in eight of his last 11 contests versus them (4G-9A).
Evgeni Malkin leads Pittsburgh and is tied for third in the NHL with 14 points (4G-10A) on the road.
The Penguins own an overall record of 390-90-48 when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin record a point in a game.
The Penguins enter tonight’s game with points in 13-consecutive games against the Columbus Blue Jackets (11-0-2) dating back to Dec. 12, 2019. In this span, Pittsburgh has outscored Columbus by a 52-31 margin, and has scored three or more goals in 11 of the 13 games. Sidney Crosby has led the way, suiting up for 12 of the games and leading the Penguins with 25 points (11G-14A) over this stretch. The team’s 13-game point streak is its longest active point streak against one opponent.
Sidney Crosby, who has notched five goals over his last seven 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.
On Thursday, the Penguins recalled forwards Vasily Ponomarev and Matt Nieto from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Nieto, who was returned from his conditioning loan following a nearly year-long battle back from reconstructive MCL surgery, is looking to make his season debut.
The 32-year-old appeared in 22 games and recorded four points (1G-3A) with Pittsburgh last season after signing a two-year contract in the 2023.24 offseason. The 5-foot-11, 187-pound winger has played in 11 NHL seasons split between Pittsburgh, Colorado and San Jose where he’s suited up for 673 regular-season games, registering 86 goals, 117 assists, 203 points and 12 game-winning goals. He has 62 games of Stanley Cup Playoff experience where he’s notched 21 points (8G-13A) and is plus-11.
Ponomarev is looking to make his Penguins debut after being acquired in the Jake Guentzel trade on March 7, 2024. The native of Moscow, Russia has two games of NHL experience where he’s picked up a goal and an assist. Drafted in the second round (53rd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, he also has played in 125 career AHL games, notching 36 goals, 51 assists and 87 points.
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 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.
Anthony Beauvillier found the back of the net on Wednesday night against the Red Wings, boosting his season total to five in 18 games. His five goals are tied for third on Pittsburgh. Only Sidney Crosby (6) and Rickard Rakell (6) have more. Beauvillier has matched his 2023.24 goal total that he had in 60 games last season split between Vancouver (2), Chicago (2) and Nashville (1). He now has goals in back-to-back games. A goal tonight would give him his sixth goal streak of three or more games, and first since Mar. 20- 27, 2021 (4 game streak, 4 G). Beauvillier has 10 points (2G-8A) in 22 career games against the Blue Jackets, which includes five points (1G-4A) over his last nine games against them.
Evgeni Malkin has seven mutli-point efforts this season which ranks eighth in the NHL. Malkin leads the Penguins with 18 points (5G-13A) in 18 games. In all 18 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.
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 enters tonight’s game just one assist shy of tying Hall-of-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.
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.
Sidney Crosby has notched 60 points (20G-40A) in 42 career games versus the Blue Jackets. With a point tonight, Crosby can pass Martin Erat (60) for sole possession of the third-most points against Columbus in NHL history. Crosby’s 1.43 points-per-game average versus the Blue Jackets ranks second in NHL history (min. 20 GP) behind Nikita Kucherov (27GP, 1.48) and Joe Sakic (24GP, 1.46).
