Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (22-14-11, 55 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ Seattle Kraken (21-17-9, 51 points, 3rd place Pacific Division)

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and KONG, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: Today starts another three-in-four stretch; the Pens will be in Calgary on Wednesday night, followed by a quick turn to Edmonton on Thursday. Then the team gets two days off before playing in Vancouver on Sunday at which point they head home and get three more days off until another homestand begins late next week.

Opponent Track: Seattle is returning home today for the first time since an eastern swing. It wasn’t a successful one, the Kraken only had a 1-3-1 record with the lone win coming against the disheveled Rangers. On the other hand, the Kraken have been pretty decent at home lately, sporting a 3-0-2 record in their last five home contests.

Season Series: The Kraken took a 3-2 OT win over Sergei Murashov and the Pens back on November 22nd, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored the goals for Pittsburgh on that day.

Hidden Stat: Pittsburgh is looking to snap a four-game losing skid against the Kraken (0-3-1), per Pens PR. Overall, the Pens have won just two out of nine all-time matchups against Seattle (2-5-2).

Getting to know the Kraken

Jared McCann - Matty Beniers - Jordan Eberle

Berkly Catton - Shane Wright - Kaapo Kakko

Eeli Tolvanen - Chandler Stephenson - Frederick Gaudreau

Jaden Schwartz - Ben Meyers - Ryan Winterton

Vincent Dunn / Adam Larsson

Ryan Lindgren / Brandon Montour

Ryker Evans / Jamie Oleksiak

Goalies: Philipp Grubauer and Joey Daccord

Potential scratches: Tye Kartye, Max McCormick, Cale Fleury, Josh Mahura

Injured Reserve: Matt Murray

• In some ways this looks like a platonically ideal, perfectly average lineup. No standouts, no anchors. Nothing that strikes fear in an opponent, but still one decent enough to put up a solid effort on any given night to not be chalked up ahead of time as a sure win.
• The second line features some young players with potential. Catton just turned 20-years old last week and is embarking on his rookie season. Wright only turned 22 earlier this month and the once-presumptive number one overall pick in his draft class looks like he’s still trying to figure things out. Kakko, a former second overall pick by the Rangers in 2019, might never live up to that lofty draft billing but has become a decent enough player.
• The above is only tepid praise, there isn’t room for much more just yet. Even a player like Berniers, a former second overall pick himself, is in his fourth full season and hasn’t topped his rookie total of 57 points (he’s on pace for 54 points this season). Seattle took a patient approach with their expansion strategy, so far the former top-10 picks haven’t really gone supersonic in their developments, to steal a Seattle-centric term. The franchise is young and some of those players are still young but to this point that seems to be a theme of waiting to see some tangible progress or get impressed by something or someone.
• Matt Murray is nearing a return from a lower body injury suffered in late-November. A hip surgery and rehab from that took him out of the NHL picture for a while, it seemed like this fall he was just getting back into a good place fighting for a backup spot with the Kraken and performing well in early looks before going down again.

• Not much impressive going on here, though long injury absences to McCann and Schwarz don’t help the season total numbers. Not a lot of game-breaking forwards to be found, Seattle ranks just 25th in offense by averaging 2.74 goals/game. No one under them is in a playoff position, tough to be good without having a potent offense in this league and Seattle’s major problem is they don’t have a lot of players that are going to consistently generate points.
• Eberle’s name alone is enough to cause a chill up the back of a Pens’ fan. Would you believe he only has 14 goals and 19 points in 35 career games against Pittsburgh? Certainly seems like more, and maybe that’s because there is more. Playoff trauma (6G+3A in 10 games, including one goal in each of the four games in the 2019 series) is definitely a helping hand in his reputation.

Key to the game: Can the Pittsburgh defense have another good night?

There are a lot of the small aspects that are tantalizing for the Penguins in this matchup. You could go with Pittsburgh’s third ranked power play against Seattle’s 32nd ranked penalty kill. Focus could go to Seattle ranking 32nd in 5v5 Corsi allowed while the Pens have been hovering in the lower top-10 for 5v5 expected goals and Corsi for as another potential turning point.

However, we’re going to lean into the other direction, where the Kraken have been poor in their 5v5 process offensively (in addition to defensively, the advanced stat models are not very fond of Seattle’s work to say the least). The Kraken have generated very little in terms of Corsi and Fenwick for shot attempts, they’re last in total expected goal production and unimpressive in actual goals.

Match that up against a Pittsburgh team that has only allowed 23 total goals over their last 11 games (a 2.09 GAA that ranks tops in the NHL in this stretch) and that stands out as a weakness versus strength matchup that the visitors will need to keep going for best odds of success. The Penguins’ franchise has never really been thought of as a defensive juggernaut - and perhaps they’re even performing over their own abilities right now - but how long they can play a simple kind of road game and keep shots and goals down in the next week will be a topic to monitor. They’ve been great in this area since Christmas, the results have followed to the tune of a 7-2-2 record.

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Egor Chinakhov - Tommy Novak - Evgeni Malkin

Anthony Mantha - Ben Kindel - Justin Brazeau

Connor Dewar - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Brett Kulak / Kris Letang

Parker Wotherspoon / Jack St. Ivany

Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton

Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs

Potential Scratches: Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes, Joona Koppanen

IR: Erik Karlsson, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones

• Karlsson participated in a non-contact jersey during yesterday’s practice and is travelling with the team on this four-game road trip. The exact phrasing of his injury announcement (“Karlsson is out with a lower-body injury and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.” Pens PR, January 13th) implied an ominous tone. He may well require that time or longer before he can return to the lineup but seeing him at least on skates so soon after the injury and going on this trip has to be an encouraging sign at this point.
• From the ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ files: the Pittsburgh PK has killed off the last 18 shorthanded opportunities they’ve faced, dating back five games now.
• Evgeni Malkin has six points in six games since his return from injury (2G+4A).
• Should the goalie rotation hold, with no reason to think that it wouldn’t, the net would be Skinner’s tonight.

Sidney Crosby is looking to move up the rankings on this road trip by passing Mario Lemieux in yet another category this season.

Today will be Crosby’s 1,400th NHL game and fittingly enough for the perfectly balanced player, he will make it an even 700 of those games played on the road. It remains personally astounding that Crosby “only” has 782 road points in the 699 games to this point (1.12 per game) compared to the 958 points he’s scored in 700 home games (1.37). Favorable matchups, more predictable environments, ability for familiar routines and not traveling are very real factors that naturally make home games easier, it’s just the discrepancy involved will never not be eye-catching.

[And, in the games played category, if curiosity tingled: Alex Ovechkin has 770 career road games (1.11 points/game). Lemieux only had 443 road games (1.77).]

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