* Sidney Crosby (Cole Harbour, NS) and Nathan MacKinnon (Halifax, NS) grew up just minutes apart in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Tomorrow’s game will mark the 18th head-to-head matchup between Crosby and MacKinnon, where Crosby’s Penguins have gone 9-7-1 in the first 17 games.
* Sidney Crosby enters the game one multi-point performance back of tying Steve Yzerman (477) for seventh place on the NHL’s all-time multi-point games 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.
* Evgeni Malkin enters this contest 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. Sidney Crosby is just one even-strength goal shy of tying Teemu Selanne for the 12th most even-strength goals in NHL history.
* Bryan Rust has eight points (5G-3A) in his last seven games played against the Avalanche. He has an active five-game point streak (4G-2A) versus them.
* In nine career games played against Colorado, Michael Bunting has recorded 11 points (6G-5A). It’s his second-most points notched against any one team (Detroit, 15).
Michael Bunting has 11 points (6G-5A) over his last 16 games after recording just one point (1A) in his first 12 games. Since his first goal of the season on November 5 against the New York Islanders, he is tied for the team lead in goals with six, and he has 11 points (6G-5A) in those past 16 games, tying for second on Pittsburgh in that span.
Bunting’s game-winning goal Saturday night against Toronto doubled as his fourth power-play goal of the season. No Penguin has more power-play goals this season than Bunting.
* Blake Lizotte tallied an empty-net goal Saturday night against Toronto for his second goal in as many games. With a point on Saturday, Lizotte extended his point streak to a career-long four games (3G-3A). No Penguin has more points than Lizotte’s six in the team’s last four games. The forward also ranks third on Pittsburgh in points per game this season (min. 10 GP). Pittsburgh has points in 10 of 13 games when Lizotte is in the lineup (8-3-2).
* Goaltender Tristan Jarry stopped 25 of 27 shots on Saturday against Toronto en route to his fourth-straight win, his longest such streak since November 4-14, 2023. Jarry is seeking his first five-game win streak since December 1-22, 2022 when he won seven-consecutive starts.
Since his winning streak began on November 27 against Vancouver, Jarry leads all goaltenders in wins.
During this span, Jarry ranks eighth among all goaltenders with a .914 save percentage (min. four games played).
* The Penguins’ power play has been much more efficient this season, especially as of late. In their last nine games, the team has scored nine power-play goals, including two games where they scored multiple power-play goals. The Penguins rank sixth in the NHL in power-play goals over this nine-game span.
The Penguins rank 13th in the NHL in total power-play percentage at 22.6%. Through 28 games this season, the team has 19 power-play goals. They achieved this number in 11 fewer games than last year, as it took the team 39 games to record the same number of power-play goals.
