* Pittsburgh’s duo of Sidney Crosby (29G-35A-64PTS) and Evgeni Malkin (17G-31A-48PTS) rank third and fifth among all active skaters in points against the Panthers, respectively. The Penguins have four of the top-13 point scorers against Florida among active players.
* Erik Karlsson (11G-25A) is tied for third in points and Kris Letang (11G-24A) ranks sixth among defensemen against the Panthers all-time.
* Since the 2015-16 season, Sidney Crosby (15G in 21GP) is tied with Kirill Kaprizov (5G in 7GP) and Yegor Sharangovich (5G in 7GP) for first in the NHL, averaging 0.71 goals per game against Florida (min. 5 GP).
* Matt Nieto has seven goals and 10 points (7G-3A) in 15 career games against the Panthers. His seven goals against them are his most against any one team.
* Pittsburgh has points in eight of 10 games when Blake Lizotte is in the lineup (6-2-2).
* Michael Bunting has nine points (5G-4A) over his last 13 games after recording just one point (1A) in his first 12 games. Only Sidney Crosby (11) has more points on Pittsburgh in this span.
* Newly acquired forward Philip Tomasino scored his second goal in as many games with the Penguins on Saturday night. The goal doubled as his second-straight game-winning goal. In doing so, he became just the second player in franchise history to notch two game-winning goals in his first three games with the Penguins, joining Chuck Kobasew who had two game-winners in his first three games of the 2013-14 season.
With a goal tonight, Tomasino can have his first-career three-game goal streak. Since joining the Penguins, only Rickard Rakell (3) has more goals than Tomasino and he leads the Penguins in shots on goal.
* Rickard Rakell found the back of the net again on Saturday night to extend his goal streak to a season-long (tied) three games (3G). The tally makes Rakell the first Penguin to reach the 10-goal plateau this season, and with a goal tonight he can have just his fourth goal streak of four or more games.
* 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 enters tonight’s game with a four-game point streak (1G-4A) and has points in eight of his last nine games (2G-7A). Crosby has registered 1,021 assists in his illustrious career, which is just two shy of tying Gordie Howe for the fifth-most assists with a franchise in NHL history.
Crosby is also one multi-point performance back of tying Steve Yzerman (477) for seventh place on the NHL’s all-time multi-point games list ... and just one even-strength goal shy of tying Teemu Selanne for the 12th most even-strength goals in NHL history.
* 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.
* Bryan Rust enters tonight’s game one point shy of tying Mark Recchi for 16th place on the franchise’s all-time points list. Nine (5G-4A) of Rust’s 12 points this season have come at home. His 0.90 points-per-game average at home is second on Pittsburgh.
* Pittsburgh scored a season-high three power-play goals on Saturday night as the Penguins took down the Flames, 6-2. Pittsburgh has scored a power-play goal in five of its last six games (7-for-20, 35.0%), and since this stretch began on Nov. 19, only three teams have scored more power-play goals than the Penguins.
