Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Colorado Avalanche 3/24/2024 - Lines, how to watch
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The Penguins face down Nathan MacKinnon, who is looking to extend his home point streak to 34 straight games, in a matinee battle.
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (30-30-9, 69 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Colorado Avalanche (45-20-5, 95 points, 1st place Central Division)
When: 2 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Nationally broadcast game on TNT, streaming on Max
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins settle into an every-other-day schedule over the upcoming week, starting with Jake Guentzel’s return to PPG Paints Arena as the Carolina Hurricanes come to town Tuesday. Guentzel has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in his first seven games in Carolina.
Opponent Track: The Avalanche are on an eight-game winning streak, and they’ve won 10 of their past 11 contests. The surge has all but erased an uncharacteristic seven-loss February and placed the 2022 Stanley Cup champs back on top of the Central.
The #Avs were +146 in shots on goal through the first 63 games of the season. Pretty good, 10th in the league in shots for% (all strengths).
— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) March 23, 2024
The Avs are +96 in the past seven games, tops in the league in SF%.
Season Series: The Penguins shut out the Avalanche 4-0 on Oct. 26 thanks to a pair of Reilly Smith goals in one of Smith’s two multi-score outings this season.
Getting to know the Avalanche
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Valeri Nichushkin - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen - Casey Mittelstadt - Jonathan Drouin
Brandon Duhaime - Ross Colton - Zach Parise
Miles Wood - Yakov Trenin - Andrew Cogliano
DEFENSEMEN
Devon Toews / Cale Makar
Samuel Girard / Josh Manson
Jack Johnson / Sean Walker
Goalies: Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen
Possible scratches: Joel Kiviranta, Logan O’Connor, Caleb Jones
IR: Gabe Landeskog, Pavel Francouzc
- Nathan MacKinnon is on an absolute tear. He already has career highs of 43 goals and 119 points, and there are still 12 games left in the season. He’s on a 17-game point streak. He looks absurdly dominant every game. It’s hard to overemphasize how big of a threat he’s going to be against the floundering Penguins.
Is this good?#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/G3kgbSVMiq
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 23, 2024
- Hanging out on MacKinnon’s wing doesn’t seem like a bad place to be. Nichushkin just recorded his career-best 26th goal of the season.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
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- Backup goaltender Justus Annunen has been getting more playing time for the Avalanche lately. He recorded his fourth straight victory Tuesday with a 30-save win over the St. Louis Blues.
Unstoppable force meets movable object
The Avalanche have an NHL-best 27 wins in 33 games at home.
To make things even more dangerous at Ball Arena, Nathan MacKinnon’s home point streak has reached 33 games, second only to Wayne Gretzky in the NHL record books.
MacKinnon has 27 goals and 45 assists over that stretch. He’s recorded a point in every single one of the Avalanche’s home games so far this season.
That’s bad news for the Penguins, who went into Saturday ranked No. 26 in the NHL with just 12 wins in 34 games on the road.
The Pens arrive in Denver a seven-game road losing streak. That marks the least successful road stretch for the team since 2006, according to Bob Grove.
And now for the Penguins
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Projected lines
FORWARDS
Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Lars Eller - Valtteri Puustinen
Emil Bemstrom - Noel Acciari - Jesse Puljujarvi
DEFENSEMEN
P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig / Jack St. Ivany
Goalies: Tristan Jarry or Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Jeff Carter, Ryan Graves
IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Jansen Harkins (hand injury)
- Saturday was an off day and travel day for the Penguins, per Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports.
- Tristan Jarry has been pulled in three of his last seven starts, including Friday’s loss to the Stars.
- Ryan Graves missed Friday’s game in anticipation of the birth of his first child. It’s not clear if he’ll be back today or if rookie Jack St. Ivany will remain on the third pairing in his absence.
Coach Sullivan on St. Ivany in his debut: "Solid. I thought he was solid. I thought he made some good plays, I thought he defended hard. He's got a good stick. I thought he played well."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 23, 2024