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Who: Carolina Hurricanes (43-28-7; 93 points, fourth place in Metropolitan division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (42-25-11; 95 points, third place in Metropolitan division)
When: 5:00 p.m. Eastern, what a weird time for a game!
How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet in the Pittsburgh viewing area, Fox Sports Carolina, NHL Network nationally
Opponent Track: Carolina jumped up within two points of the Pens in the standings yesterday with a 5-2 win over the now eliminated from playoff contention Philadelphia Flyers (fun to type all 45 years of the internet’s existence!)
Pens Refresh: The Pens played pretty well at home Friday night against the Predators, but Pekka Rinne played better, stopping 42 shots and Nashville took a 3-1 win.
Season Series: The teams met two weeks ago with the Canes picking up a 3-2 (shootout) win. The Canes won 4-0 on February 5th. The Pens won 3-0 back on December 22nd, and this will be the last game of the season.
SBN Team Counterpart: Canes Country
Possible lines
Nino Niederreiter - Sebastien Aho - Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland - Lucas Wallmark - Jordan Martinook
Brock McGinn - Greg McKegg - Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin / Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce / Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan / Trevor van Riemsdyk
A crucial, crucial game
This weekend hasn’t been a kind one to Pittsburgh. They lost on Friday and last night saw every single one of the teams that matters to them all win. That’s Washington, New York Islanders, the aforementioned Carolina win, Columbus and Montreal for good measure all picking up two points.
That heightens pressure a bit on the Pens with all those unfavorable results.
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However, there’s a clear solution. That’s two points today and denying Carolina any. It would go a long way towards still finishing in the 2v3 spot in the Metro. But they do need to start getting points if they want to hunt home ice advantage in the first round by ending up in that two spot.
And now for the Penguins...
Check the game notes, eh bud?
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Possible Lines
Jake Guentzel- Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jared McCann - Teddy Blueger - Phil Kessel
Dominik Simon - Nick Bjugstad - Patric Hornqvist
Adam Johnson - Matt Cullen- Garrett Wilson
Olli Maatta / Brian Dumoulin
Jack Johnson / Justin Schultz
Marcus Pettersson / Erik Gudbranson
Expected scratches: Zach Trotman (healthy), Kris Letang (upper), Chad Ruhwedel (upper), Zach Aston-Reese (hip), Evgeni Malkin (rib)