Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Nashville Predators 2/28/2023 - Lines, how to watch

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (29-21-9, 67 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Nashville Predators (29-22-6, 64 points, 5th place Central Division)

When: 8:00 p.m. eastern

How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh in the Western PA market, Bally Sports South for Preds fans

Opponent Track: The stripped-down Predators have taken advantage of some leaky defenses to rack up goals as of late. They’ve scored five times or more in four of their last five wins, including a 7-3 win over the visiting Panthers and 6-2 victories on the road in San Jose and Arizona. That’s a considerable string of events for a team that is actively auctioning off players for future assets. Nashville GM David Poile, despite being set to retire this summer, has made a splash in the trade market before the deadline. (One can only hope Poile will inspire Ron Hextall to act on all those bold, exciting moves he probably has up his sleeve, right?)

Pens Path Ahead: The Penguins will spend the rest of the week on the road, with a rematch against the Lightning in Tampa on Thursday followed by a Saturday contest against the Panthers in Florida. The following week, after meeting the Blues at home, the Pens play the Islanders, Flyers and three (!) games against the Rangers in the span of nine days. Who doesn’t love playing in the Metropolitan Division?

Season Series: This is the Pens’ first look at Nashville this season. They’ll meet again at PPG Paints on Thursday, March 30.

Getting to know the Predators

SBN partner blog: On the Forecheck

Potential Lines

FORWARDS

Mikael Granlund - Thomas Novak - Matt Duchene

Zachary Sanford - Cody Glass - Philip Tomasino

Cole Smith - Colton Sissons - Yakov Trenin

Yakov Trenin - Kiefer Sherwood

DEFENSEMEN

Ryan McDonagh / Roman Josi

Mattias Ekholm / Alexandre Carrier

Cal Foote / Jeremy Lauzon

Dante Fabbro

Goalies: Joust Saros, Kevin Lankinen

Scratches: Filip Forsberg (upper body, day-to-day), Juuso Parssinen (upper body), Ryan Johansen (will miss the rest of the regular season after leg surgery last Thursday)

IR: Mark Borowiecki (upper body, out since October)

• With Juuso Parssinen missing on Sunday, the Predators went with 11 forwards and seven defenseman. Where will new trade acquisition Cal Foote fit into this setup?
• It has been an absolutely brutal month for the Predators in terms of injuries. Filip Forsberg has been out of the lineup after a painful hit during a game against the Flyers on February 11. Ryan Johansen took a skate to the leg against the Canucks on February 21 which required surgery and ended his regular season. Parssinen hasn’t played since he was injured in a collision against the Sharks on February 24. All of these collusion injuries, which follow the loss of Mark Borowiecki after an awkward fall into the boards in October, have to be brutal on the team’s morale.
• That’s not even to mention what these losses mean in terms of offensive production. Following the trade of Nino Niederreiter, whom the Predators sent to the Jets on Saturday, Nashville is now missing three of its top five producers.

Stats

via hockeydb

• The Predators just traded Niederreiter to the Jets and Tanner Jeannot to the Lightning.
• Cal Foote, who the Predators acquired from the Lightning in that “jaw dropping” deal for Jeannot, might be making his Nashville debut tonight. Foote averaged just over 14 minutes per game on the Lightning defense, and has one goal and two assists in 26 games.
• The Predators leaned heavily on goaltender Juuse Saros last year, who appeared in an NHL-leading 67 games for Nashville on his way to finishing third in Vezina Trophy voting in 2021-22. This year his workload is a little lighter— the Predators’ offseason acquisition of backup Kevin Lankinen has helped this team stay as close to the playoff bubble as it is— and Saros is once again having a stellar season. In many games he is the Predators’ greatest strength. The only question is if the team is planning to flip him for future assets during what appears to be an ongoing fire sale.

Head to head matchup

• Juuse Saros is lifting Nashville pretty high in the three areas he can affect, but otherwise the Penguins have the edge in every single other category tracked.

And now for the Pens...

Potential Lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen

Drew O’Connor - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald

Defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry

P.O. Joseph / Jan Rutta

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith

Scratches: Mark Friedman (upper-body injury), Ryan Poehling (injury), Chad Ruhwedel

IR: None!

• The Penguins got a day off on Monday before traveling to Nashville on Tuesday.
• If he gets the start tonight, Tristan Jarry will look to build some momentum from Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Blues. It was first since some shaky performances following his return from injury.
• Only five players did not make it on the scoreboard during the 7-3 win over the Lightning. Absurdly, one of those players was Brock McGinn, who has not recorded a point since December 22. He and Josh Archibald were the only Penguins who did not record a shot on goal on Sunday.
• Evgeni Malkin has two points in each of his last three games, and in four of his last five.
• For the first time in his career, new dad Marcus Pettersson has multiple points in consecutive games.