Game Preview: Detroit Red Wings @ Pittsburgh Penguins 11/13/2024

Yesterday at 07:00 AM

Who: Detroit Red Wings (6-7-1, 13 points, 7th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (6-9-2, 14 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh locally, TNT nationally and streaming on Max

Pens' Path Ahead: The Pens head to Columbus for a game on Friday and make the quick trip home to meet up with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. Then there's a bit of a lull in the schedule coming with two days off, a home game against Tampa next Tuesday followed by two more days off.

Opponent Track: The Red Wings have been off for three days, and the break came at a good time being as they have lost their last two games by a 7-1 combined final score (3-1 to Toronto on Friday and 4-0 to the Rangers their last time out on Saturday). After tonight, Detroit flies to California for games against each of the three CA teams.

Season Series: The Pens have beaten the Red Wings once already, a 6-3 win back on October 10th in Joel Blomqvist's NHL debut (seems like a long time ago now, eh?). After tonight, there's one more PIT/DET game and it will be on December 31st.

Hidden Stat: Sidney Crosby has 46 points (18G-28A) in 36 career games against the Detroit Red Wings. He has multiple points in eight of his last 11 outings against them (7G-12A), stick tap to Pens PR.

Getting to know the Red Wings

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Alex DeBrincat - Dylan Larkin - Lucas Raymond

Andrew Copp - JT Compher - Patrick Kane

Jonatan Berggren - Marco Kasper - Vladimir Tarasenko

Michael Rasmussen - Joe Veleno - Christian Fischer

DEFENSEMEN

Simon Edvinsson / Moritz Seider

Ben Chiarot / Jeff Petry

Erik Gustafsson / Justin Holl

Goalies: Cam Talbot announced starting (Ville Husso backup)

Potential Scratches: Tyler Motte, Albert Johansson, Alex Lyon (lower body injury)

IR: none

—Every PIT/DET game as of late has been an absolute feeding frenzy for the Detroit top line. All of DeBrincat, Larkin and Raymond scored six points a piece against Pittsburgh last season. In the previous meeting last month, the trio combined for six points, led by the Cat putting up 2G+1A. Heaven only knows how the Penguins can limit the damage but it's no secret on where the defensive focus should be tonight.

—Detroit is becoming a case study in rebuilds, they haven't made the playoffs in going on nine seasons. The lineup has a couple of very nice pieces but overall the team has lacked the traction to make the next step. They are only two points out of the last playoff spot, but have only generated 34 goals this season (31st in the NHL).

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—Pittsburgh was reportedly attempting to sign Vladimir Tarasenko and based on his start of only two goals and three points in 13 games, it looks like they might be just as well that he opted to take Detroit's offer instead.

—Ville Husso's situation has been similar to Tristan Jarry's this season. Detroit waived Hussao not long after the Pens touched Husso up for six goals and he went to the AHL to work on his game. He's back now and played in only his second NHL game of the season on Saturday against NYR (giving up three goals on 23 shots and taking the loss). There are differences, of course, since Husso's contract is up after this year but the Pens and Wings are in a similar boat where their high-priced and presumptive No. 1 goalie is having to work his way back into good graces after some shaky play.

—And now for the Pens

Infographic courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins PR

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Jesse Puljujarvi - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Anthony Beauvillier - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Jack St. Ivany

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist, Tristan Jarry

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Sam Poulin, Cody Glass (concussion) and one of the goalies

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Kevin Hayes (week-to-week upper body injury)

—The Pens practiced yesterday but didn't take line rushes so take the above with a grain of salt. Changes are already here after the trade of Lars Eller. Tonight should mark the NHL season debut for Sam Poulin who was recalled the other day and now has space to slot into the lineup that now doesn't have Eller.

—Hayes and Glass, as expected, were not on the ice at this point of both of their respective rehab processes.

—Could this be the night for Jarry to get back in the game? It stands to reason that they probably shouldn't leave him on the shelf forever after he played well in the AHL and the team could use some sort of rallying point right now. Blomqvist just got pulled, Nedeljkovic is always an option that the team seems to prefer and defer towards these days so it will be interesting to see how that decision plays out.

Frying the Wings at home

The Penguins have been tremendous lately at PPG Paints when Detroit comes to town. From Pens PR:

The Penguins enter today's game with points in nine-consecutive home games versus Detroit, going 7-0-2 dating back to Jan. 13, 2018. It's the team's second-longest active home point streak against any one team.

PIT's Longest Home Point Streaks vs. One Team:

Team Streak Record Start Date

Columbus 15 15-0-0 Dec. 21, 2015
Detroit 9 7-0-2 Jan. 13, 2018
Philadelphia 8 6-0-2 Mar. 6, 2021
Vancouver 5 3-0-2 Oct. 16, 2018
Nashville 4 4-0-0 Dec. 28, 2019
St. Louis 4 4-0-0 Dec. 4, 2019

During this streak, Pittsburgh has outscored Detroit by a 47-22 margin and the team's power play is operating at a 45.2% success rate (14/31).

The PK note for the Red Wings might prove to be important — Detroit's only killing off 65.0% of opponent's power plays this season (31st in NHL). The Pens' power play hasn't been impressive as of late, but tonight's game could be an opportunity for them to get back on track in that department.