Game Notes
Pittsburgh is 21-3-2 in its last 26 games against Columbus dating back to Feb. 3, 2017.
Pittsburgh went 3-0-1 against the Blue Jackets last season, and are 3-0-0 against them this year. Since the Metropolitan Division was formed for the 2012.13 season, Pittsburgh has dropped the season series with Columbus just once (2014.15).
The Penguins have scored three or more goals in 19 of their last 23 games against the Blue Jackets, while 15 of those 23 games have been four-plus goal efforts.
Drew O’Connor has goals in back-to-back games (2A), and with a goal tonight, he can tie his season/career long goal streak of three games set from Feb. 20-25 (3G-1A).
Tristan Jarry is 8-1-1 in his career versus Columbus with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
Evgeni Malkin’s two goals on Thursday allowed him to become just the 31st player in NHL history, and fourth active player, with 15 20-goal seasons.
The Penguins own an overall record of 385-87-45 when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin record a point in a game.
The Penguins enter tonight’s game with points in 12-consecutive games against the Columbus Blue Jackets (11-0-1) dating back to Dec. 12, 2019. In this span, Pittsburgh has outscored Columbus by a 49-27 margin, and has scored three or more goals in 10 of the 12 games. Sidney Crosby has led the way, suiting up for 11 of the games and leading the Penguins with 24 points (11G-13A) over this stretch. The team’s 12-game point streak is its longest active point streak against one opponent.
Crosby enters tonight’s game just two points shy of his 13th 80-point campaign. Crosby’s 12 80-point seasons are currently tied for fifth in NHL history, and when he reaches 80 points this year, only Wayne Gretzky will have more such seasons.
Crosby is also four points shy of ensuring that he will average a point per game for the 19th time in his 19 NHL seasons. Throughout NHL history, only Wayne Gretzky (19) has recorded more point-per-game seasons than Crosby.
Crosby has been red hot as of late, notching his third-consecutive multi-point effort (2A) on Thursday against Columbus. It gives Crosby nine points (2G-7A) over his last three games, and since Mar. 24, no player in the league has more assists (7) or points (9) than Crosby.
Last game, Sidney Crosby notched two assists, and in doing so, claimed sole possession of the 11th most points in NHL history.
Crosby has points in seven of his last eight games overall, accumulating 14 points total (3G-11A) in that span. He is looking to record multiple points in four-straight games for the first time since Oct. 10-16, 2019 (4GP, 3G-5A).
Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang have combined on 305 goals in their careers, which is one such effort shy of tying Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr for the second-most goals combined on by a forward-defenseman duo in NHL history.
Crosby has notched 59 points (20G-39A) in 41 career games versus the Blue Jackets. With a point tonight, Crosby can tie Martin Erat (60) for the third-most points against Columbus in NHL history. Crosby’s 1.44 points-per-game average versus the Blue Jackets ranks second in NHL history (min. 20 GP) behind Joe Sakic (24GP, 1.46).
Lars Eller enters tonight’s game just two points shy of 400 in his career (177G-221A). Born in Rodovre, Denmark, Eller is looking to become the third Danish player in NHL history to achieve 400 or more points in a career. Selected in the first round (13th overall) by St. Louis in the 2007 NHL Draft, Eller would become the 15th player from his draft class to reach 400 career points.
Pittsburgh’s offense has been consistently producing over the past eight games, averaging 3.88 goals per game. Since this stretch began on Mar. 14, only three teams in the NHL have scored more goals than the Penguins’ 31.
