Tonight, Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan is set to appear in his 700th game as Pittsburgh’s head coach. Sullivan, who has coached 863 career regular-season games split between Boston (2003-06 and Pittsburgh (2015-Present), ranks first in franchise history in regular-season (699) and playoff (82) games coached, as well as regular-season (386) and playoff (44) wins.
Goaltender Tristan Jarry is 5-3-0 with a 2.86 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage and one shutout in nine career games against the Maple Leafs.
Evgeni Malkin has made a habit of turning in big performances against the Toronto Maple Leafs over the course of his career. In 47 games, Malkin has 24 goals, 47 assists and 71 points. He has been held scoreless against Toronto only 10 times in his career, and has recorded three or more points 10 times. In the 20 games that he’s recorded multiple points versus the Maple Leafs, the Penguins are 14-5-1. Malkin’s 1.51 points-per-game average is his highest against any team, and is the second highest against Toronto among all active players (min. 3 games). With a point tonight, Malkin can surpass Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for points against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Kris Letang has 10 points (2G-8A) in his last 17 games against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and 30 points (4G-26A) in 46 games against them total. Erik Karlsson leads all active defensemen with 11 goals, 32 assists and 43 points in 47 games against Toronto.
Pittsburgh has points in nine of 12 games when Blake Lizotte is in the lineup (7-3-2). He has an active three-game point streak (2G-3A) which is tied for his career-long point streak previously set four times, most recently from Dec. 16-19, 2021 (2G-1A).
Michael Bunting has 10 points (5G-5A) over his last 15 games after recording just one point (1A) in his first 12 games.
Since acquiring forward Philip Tomasino from the Nashville Predators on November 25, the Penguins are 4-1-0, due in large part to the forward’s four points (3G-1A) and two game-winning goals. Tomasino’s active four-game point streak (3G-1A) is tied for the longest point streak of his career, set most recently from November 18-24, 2023. Since making his Pittsburgh debut, no Penguin has more goals than Tomasino’s three.
Sidney Crosby enters tonight’s game with points in five of his last six games (1G-5A) and nine of his last 11 games (2G-8A). Crosby has registered 1,022 assists in his illustrious career, which is just one shy of tying Gordie Howe for the fifth-most assists with a franchise in NHL history. He is one multi-point performance back of tying Steve Yzerman (477) for seventh place on the NHL’s all-time multi-point games list. He is one even-strength goal shy of tying Teemu Selanne for the 12th most even-strength goals in history
Evgeni Malkin enters tonight’s game just one even-strength goal shy of surpassing Jaromir Jagr for sole possession of third place on the Penguins all-time even-strength goals list.
Kris Letang ranks third among active defensemen with 752 points (170G-582A) in 1,112 games, and is one point shy of moving into sole possession of the 23rd most points in NHL history among defensemen.
Bryan Rust enters tonight’s game one point shy of surpassing Mark Recchi for 16th place on the franchise’s all-time points list. Ten (6G-4A) of Rust’s 13 points this season have come at home. His 0.91 points-per-game average at home is second on Pittsburgh.
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.
