Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (32-17-15, 72 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division) @ Vegas Golden Knights (29-22-14, 75 points, 3rd place Pacific Division)
When: 10:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Scripps, streaming on ESPN+
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Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins continue the rhythm of their every-other-day road trip with a game in Utah on Saturday (9pm eastern start), then comes Colorado next Monday and the trip ends where it started back in Carolina next Wednesday.
Opponent Track: Vegas is just 1-5-0 in the month of March, starting with a 5-0 loss to Pittsburgh on March 1st. They’ve lost three games in a row, including a 2-1 nailbiter in Dallas. This is the start of a four-game homestand for the Golden Knights, who should be playing with desperation now that they’ve slipped from first to third place in their division.
Season Series: As mentioned above, the Pens took the first game 5-0 last Sunday. Ben Kindel scored a goal and added an assist to be named the first star of the game, Arturs Silovs stopped all 22 shots he saw to earn the shutout.
Hidden Stat: Pittsburgh is 13-6-6 against Western Conference opponents this year, per Pens PR.
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Getting to know the Golden Knights
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Braeden Bowman
Brett Howden – Mitch Marner – Pavel Dorofeyev
Reilly Smith – Tomas Hertl – Keegan Kolesar
Cole Smith – Nic Dowd – Colton Sissons
DEFENSEMEN
Brayden McNabb / Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin /Rasmus Andersson
Jeremy Lauzon / Kaeden Korczak
Goalies: Adin Hill and Akira Schmidt
Potential scratches: Ben Hutton, Jonas Rondbjerg
Injured Reserve: Mark Stone, Carter Hart, Alex Pietrangelo, William Karlsson
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As you might expect with a losing team lately, lots of changes and fluid forward lines with in-game adjustments are being frequently made, most notably joining Marner and Hertl together at times.
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Vegas opted to beef up their lower lines at the trade deadline since their last meeting with Pittsburgh earlier this month, adding C. Smith from Nashville and Dowd from Washington after previously getting Andersson a little before the deadline.
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Mark Stone hasn’t played since he left mid-game against the Pens on March 1st. That was about the last thing this team needed to lose their captain, it’s unknown when he might be back, though the injury was not said to be overly serious.
Season stats
via hockeydb
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Since the 5-0 loss to Pittsburgh, Hill is 1-2-0 with a 2.67 GAA and .867 save%. Schmid is 0-2-0 with a 3.59 GAA and .865 save%. The Knights need some goaltending, neither player has been sharp lately.
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Pavel Dorofeyev is one of the more quiet star players around. He’s hit the 30-goal plateau for a second time in a row after notching 35 last season. Dorofeyev currently has more goals since the start of 2024-25 than players like Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews and Mikko Rantanen. Dorofeyev doesn’t do as much as a true superstar in the assist and playmaking department but his shot is an incredible weapon, especially on the power play where his 16 goals rank tied for second in the NHL this season.
No saves to be found
Vegas would easily be in first place in the weakest division in hockey, if they only had some goalie support. The white line plunging down in the upper right of this chart is more deflating than seeing the roulette wheel hit green for the second time in a row.
The Golden Knights have had to score a lot on the power play, and somehow coax out a good PK performance despite the lack of goaltending. They’re 2-6-0 since the Olympic break and lately their offense has dried up, in calendar March have been outscored 21-11 over the course of six games.
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That leaves two schools of thought. Either the Penguins: A) are catching a vulnerable team at a good time (as they did earlier this month in a 5-0 shutout victory where the Knights only mustered 22 total shots) or B) are in for a tough one for a team that won’t want to lose a fourth straight game, are now at home while Pittsburgh traveled cross-continent and will make it a tough game. We’ll see which side of the coin it lands on, but there aren’t too many impressive signs out of VGK in recent days and weeks about the direction they’re headed in.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Egor Chinakhov – Rickard Rakell – Bryan Rust
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Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Ville Koivunen
Elmer Soderblom – Ben Kindel – Avery Hayes
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Ilya Solovyov / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner
Potential Scratches: Sam Girard (injured), Evgeni Malkin (suspended), Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes, Justin Brazeau (out injured week to week)
IR: Sidney Crosby, Filip Hallander, Jack St. Ivany
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The regular goalie rotation lines up really nicely for Silovs to be in net tonight to try and keep it going after shutting this Vegas team out last week. No official word on that just yet, but given the regular rotation that makes a lot of sense.
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We’ll leave the lineup the same as last game, though there’s certainly chances for tweaks and improvements. Girard’s absence on the defense was felt, hopefully his day-to-day injury will have him back in the lineup sooner than later.
