Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ San Jose Sharks 1/27/2025
01/27/2025 08:22 AM
Welp, it's not 2016 anymore
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (20-23-8, 48 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ San Jose Sharks (14-32-6, 34 points, 8th place Pacific Division)
When: 10:30 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcasting on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and NBC Sports California in the local markets, streaming nationally on ESPN+
Pens' Path Ahead: Pittsburgh has one more road game on the trip after tonight, on Wednesday in Utah. Then they'll come back home and have a few days off before the Nashville Predators come to town on Saturday.
Opponent Track: The Sharks are getting into the dog days of the season already. They've lost six in a row and have a four game streak of giving up 6+ goals. It's not a pretty sight.
Season Series: The Penguins won the first game, 4-3 in a shootout back in mid-November. Good result but it wasn't pretty considering Pittsburgh blew a multi-goal lead late in the game.
Hidden Stat: Tha
Getting to know the Sharks
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Fabian Zetterlund - Mikael Granlund - Will Smith
William Eklund - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
Nikolai Kovalenko - Alex Wennberg - Luke Kunin
Scott Sabourin - Barclay Goodrow - Walker Duehr
DEFENSEMEN
Jake Walman / Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro / Timothy Liljegren
Marc-Edouard Vlasic / Henry Thrun
Goalies: Alexandar Georgiev and Yaroslav Askarov
Scratches: Colin White, Carl Grundstrom
IR: Jan Rutta, Vitek Vanecek, Logan Couture, Klim Kostin, Nico Sturm, Ty Dellandrea
—Former Penguin Colin White (0 points in 11 NHL games last season) recently signed an NHL contract with San Jose, after spending the early part of this season with their AHL affiliate.
—In less good news for a former Penguin, Rutta ended up recently being placed on the IR.
—Smith (2G+3A) and Zetterlund (2G+2A) each have four-game point streaks going. So beware the top line generating some offense.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—The Sharks are still in the early stages of getting young talent to the NHL. Eklund and Smith look good and 2024 first overall pick Macklin Celebrini is living up to the billing so far, but...That's about it at the NHL level for now. Askarov could grow with the young core into something, but considering the team is going on six year of no playoffs and being at the bottom of the heap for the past few, the quantity of young talent isn't particularly impressive.
—Kinda sucks for Georgiev, starting the season out in Colorado and looking like he might get the chance to be their go-to guy again after having played 60+ games for the Avs in each of the least two seasons. It didn't work out this year and they moved on, deciding to flip him to the worst team in the league and now every night is a battle. Since December 15th, Georgiev is 1-10-0 with a 4.12 GAA. He just got pulled after 23 minutes in his last game.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Anthony Beauvillier - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin (?) - Cody Glass
Drew O'Connor - Kevin Hayes - Philip Tomasino
Boko Imama - Noel Acciari - Matt Nieto
DEFENSEMEN
Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist
Potential Scratches: Blake Lizotte (illness), P.O. Joseph, Bryan Rust (day-to-day injury)
IR: none
—The Pens weren't on the ice yesterday as they traveled back to California, so we'll see what happens with the lineup. If Rust and Malkin are both unable to play, the the team could be at risk of only have 11 forwards fit to play while being a long way from home. But since Lizotte has been ill for a while now, perhaps he can recover enough to play and at least give the Pens a compliment of 12 healthy forwards, and certainly it would be welcomed if one or both of the star players could go.
—Tony Androckitis pointed out that Jesse Puljujarvi was a non-injury scratch yesterday in the AHL. Possibly to travel out west? Who knows, the WBS Pens do have to make some veteran scratches for each game due to league rules, could be nothing there but if there was going to be a reinforcement it likely to be Puljujarvi coming back via placing a forward in Malkin or Rust on the IR to make it fit.
