Game 29 Preview: Boston Bruins @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3/16/2021: lines, how to watch

Who: Boston Bruins (14-8-4, 32 points, 4th place in the Eastern Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (17-9-1, 37 points, 3rd place in the Eastern Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. eastern

How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, NESN in Boston, NBCSN nationally if not in a local market

Opponent Track: Make it now a 1-3-1 record for Boston in their last five games. They have scored two or fewer goals in seven their last ten games and as we saw last night, aren’t a team with a lot going for them at the moment, especially outside of their first line.

Pens path ahead: After tonight (day 2 of 5 games in 7 days), the Pens’ rough week marches on with three games against the Devils. Thursday and Saturday the Penguins will be in NJ, and the Devils come to Pittsburgh Sunday for a back-to-back. Then, mercifully, Pittsburgh gets their first two day break early next week for the first time in a long time.

Season Series: Boston won 3-2 in OT back on January 26th in the first game of the season. And then on January 28th the Bruins took a 4-1 decision. The Pens struck back at home for a 4-1 win last night. After the games tonight the Pens and Bruins will meet up again in Boston on April 1st and 3rd. Boston comes back to Pittsburgh on April 25th and 27th.

Recent History: The Pens have won their last seven games against the Bruins in Pittsburgh, and the Pens are 11-2-1 in the last 14 games played in Pittsburgh.

SBN Team Counterpart: Check out Stanley Cup of Chowder for the latest news to know about the Bruins.

Player Stats at a Glance

via hockeydb:

—Are the Bruins struggling offensively because their forwards (outside the top line) aren’t doing enough? Or is it building because their defense isn’t good enough to help fuel the offense and give them the chances? Could be a bit of a chicken and the egg dilemma here, but the bottom line is that it’s not working for them right now.

Possible Lines

FORWARDS

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron- David Pastrnak

Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Craig Smith

Anders Bjork - Charlie Coyle - Nick Ritchie

Trent Frederic - Sean Kuraly - Karson Kuhlman

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Charlie McAvoy

Jakub Zboril / Connor Clifton

Jarred Tinordi / Steven Kampfer

Possible starting goalie: ?

Scratches: Jack Studnicka, Chris Wagner, Urho Vaakanainen

IR: Ondrej Kase, John Moore, Brandon Carlo, Kevan Miller, Jeremy Lauzon, Zach Senyshyn

—Will this be 23-year old Daniel Vladar’s first career NHL start tonight? Might have to be if Tuukka Rask is unable to go with his minor injury from last week.

And now for the Pens..

Lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Evan Rodrigues - Evgeni Malkin - Kasperi Kapanen

Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brandon Tanev

Colton Sceviour - Mark Jankowski - Anthony Angello

Defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Mike Matheson / Cody Ceci

Marcus Pettersson / Chad Ruhwedel

Possible starting goalie: Casey DeSmith

Scratches: Sam Lafferty, Juuso Riikola, John Marino

IR: Jason Zucker, Mark Friedman, Jared McCann

Taxi Squad: Yannick Weber, Frederick Gaudreau, Maxime Lagace

—Tanev took a puck off the wrist last night but returned. Ideally that fades away but could be something to watch for the lineup.