Game Preview: Carolina Hurricanes @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3/31/2019, lines, how to watch

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.

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?

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)