Lineup Notes
After being evaluated following a tough sequence in Tuesday’s win over Anaheim, all of Tristan Jarry’s testing came back positive.
The only challenge, said head coach Mike Sullivan, is that Jarry’s right eye is closed with the swelling that came from getting hit with a puck after his helmet got slightly dislodged.
“So, he's got a little bit of limited vision with just the swelling in his eye. When that goes down, I think he'll be good to go,” Sullivan said. “His status right now would be day-to-day. We'll just have to wait and see.”
He won't play tonight in Los Angeles, which means Magnus Hellberg gets his first start of the year in the final game of Pittsburgh’s three-game California road trip. Penguins 2020 second-round draft pick Joel Blomqvist will back up after getting the first recall of his NHL career.
The Penguins had to make some roster moves to bring Blomqvist up, placing defenseman John Ludvig – injured in his NHL debut on Oct. 24 versus Dallas – on injured reserve; and re-assigning forward Vinnie Hinostroza – who has been in the lineup for the past two wins – to WBS.
That means Jeff Carter will slot back in after being a healthy scratch for the first time in his career.
Read more about today's lineup tweaks here.
Game Notes
Pittsburgh’s team faceoff win percentage of 56.4% leads the NHL. Sidney Crosby ranks first in the league with 152 faceoff wins, and third in the NHL with a 62.3% faceoff win percentage.
Evgeni Malkin has more game-winning goals (4) against the Los Angeles Kings than any active Eastern Conference player. Additionally, he has 19 points in 20 career games against the Kings, recording nine goals and 10 assists.
Only Vegas’ Mark Stone (17) has more takeaways than Evgeni Malkin (14) this season.
Pittsburgh is only allowing 2.82 goals against per game, a figure that is tied for sixth in the NHL.
The goaltending tandem of Magnus Hellberg (11 saves) and Tristan Jarry (21 saves) stopped all 32 shots they faced on Tuesday night in Anaheim. It marked just the fifth time in franchise history of netminders recording a combined shutout, and first since 2013.
As a team, Pittsburgh (3) is tied with the New York Islanders (3) for the most games shutting out an opponent this season.
Sidney Crosby enters tonight’s game riding a six-game point streak (3G-4A) and has been held without a point just once in 11 games this year. His point streak is the longest by a Penguin this season, and a point tonight would give him his first streak of seven or more games since Jan. 16-Feb. 10, 2023 (9 GP, 3G-11A).
Defenseman Erik Karlsson recorded an assist on Tuesday night in Anaheim, extending his point streak to three games (1G-4A). His three-game point streak is tied for the third-longest active point streak among defensemen.
