The Vancouver Canucks (38-16-6) get back to action on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena and welcome a veteran Pittsburgh Penguins (26-21-8) team for game two of a short three-game homestand.
Tuesday’s game kicks off a four-game road trip through the Pacific for the Penguins. They are fresh off a firecracker of a game on Sunday night where they traded goals for 60 minutes and ultimately beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-6.
The Penguins currently sit nine points out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and have gone 5-4-1 over their last 10 games. They are currently riding a mini, two-game winning streak. Though the Pens are nine points out, they hold a +15 goal differential this season, which is higher than any non-playoff team.
It’s another year where Sidney Crosby is leading the Penguins’ offence and having another point-per-game season. Crosby has scored 32 goals and added 28 assists for 60 points in 55 games played this season and has spent most of his season with Jake Guentzel on his wing. But with Guentzel currently on long-term injury reserve, he won’t be able to return to action until March 10th.
Crosby is tied for fifth in the league for even-strength goals with 24 and has been holding a 59% control of the goal share at even strength this season – being on the ice for 68 goals scored and 47 goals against. Crosby’s linemates in their last game were Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust but Rust left that game with an upper-body injury and is unavailable for Tuesday’s game as he didn’t travel with the team. That’s a huge loss for the Pens as Rust has been hot of late, scoring seven goals in his last 10 games.
The strength of the Pens' special teams is split down the middle with a definitive line between the penalty kill and power play. They have a top-10 penalty kill that is clicking at 82.3% this season but their power play sits in the bottom-five of the league with a 14.7% conversion rate.
Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang lead the backend and are both playing over 24 minutes per game. Each defenceman has seven goals on the season – Karlsson has 35 assists and Letang has 29.
Between the pipes, Tristan Jarry leads the way with 37 starts and holds a 16-17-4 record and a .911% save percentage. Jarry has been spelled by Alex Nedeljkovic for 17 games this season and Nedeljkovic has a 9-4-4 record with a .915% save percentage. Jarry has started seven of the last 10 games for the Penguins.
Quick Hits on the Competition:
- The Penguins are the oldest team in the league and have an average age of 29.6. That being said, they are also the most experienced team in the NHL with 12,925 NHL games of experience on their roster.
- Jeff Carter, Lars Eller and Drew O’Connor have been the most trusted penalty-killing forward for the Pens this season while Marcus Pettersson and Kris Letang are the top-pairing for the defence.
- The Pens have been outscored in first periods this season but have shown up in the second and third periods. They have scored 118 goals in the second and third periods this season while allowing 95.
- When scoring first, the Penguins are 18-10-4.
- They have not had a third period comeback win on the road this season and are 0-7-3 when trailing after 40 minutes when they are away from home.
The Canucks are coming off an impressive comeback victory on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins.
I repeat, an impressive comeback victory on Saturday night against the Boston Bruins.
The win snapped the longest losing streak of the season and brought a huge boost to morale in the locker room. With the Canucks on home ice for the balance of the week, they are afforded some extra time to get practices in and this is important as the lines have been juggled. Saturday’s game saw each of J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Elias Lindholm centre their own trio.
This was the first time we’ve seen the three All-Stars centre their own line and head coach Rick Tocchet liked the way that it balanced the lineup. He also thought that Teddy Blueger did a good job in a fourth-line role and helped establish a bit of an identity on the fourth line.
Filip Hronek scored the game-tying goal on Saturday night that ultimately sent the game to overtime. Hronek has two goals and seven points over his last nine games. No player in the league has been on the ice for more five-on-five goals this season than Hronek. He’s been on the ice for the Canucks scoring 75 goals and that’s 10 more goals than a player from any other team (Nathan MacKinnon-65GF).
The faceoff dot has been a good place for the Canucks over the last little while. Through their previous dozen games, the Canucks hold a 55.6% win percentage in the dot. Elias Lindholm has a 57.8% win percentage since joining the Canucks and J.T. Miller has won 55% of his draws this season.
Canucks’ Top Performers over Last Five:
J.T. Miller: 5g-4a-9p
Brock Boeser: 3g-3a-6p
Quinn Hughes: 0g-4a-4p
Pius Suter: 0g-4a-4p
Tyler Myers: 1g-2a-3p
Tuesday's game is a 7:00 pm PT start time and can be viewed on Sportsnet and you can listen to Brendan Batchelor do the radio play-by-play on Sportsnet 650.
