Game preview 27: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Buffalo Sabers 3/13/2021: lines, how to watch

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (16-9-1, 33 points, 3rd place in the Eastern Division) @ Buffalo Sabers (6-15-4, 16 points, 8th in the Eastern Division)

When: 19:00 east

How to watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, MSG-B in New York

Opponent’s path: Now make a nine-game skid with no win for Buffalo (0-7-2), being overtaken by 37-17 during this stretch. The road ahead is not much easier, Buffalo receives the Capitals on Monday, before taking a trip to New Jersey next Tuesday. They then return home for games next Thursday and Saturday against Boston.

Pen path ahead: After tonight in Buffalo, the Pens return home for a head-to-head clash next Monday and Tuesday against the Boston Bruins. Then the Pens will hit the road for their first games against Devils, playing in New Jersey next Thursday and Saturday.

Season Series: The Pens won the first game by the score of 5-2 on Thursday. The Sabers will go to Pittsburgh in a few weeks for consecutive games on March 24 and 25. Pens return to Buffalo on April 17 + 18 in another set b-2-b. So, to wrap up, the final two games of the season on May 6 + 8 will be in Pittsburgh – in what could be two games that Pens need to win to reach the playoffs.

Recent history: The Pens have been good for some time, and the Sabers have not. Their matchups reflect that. Pittsburgh has points in 20 of its last 22 games against Buffalo (17-2-3) since October 5, 2013. During that period, the Penguins overcame the Sabers by a margin of 83-44. Overall, Pens are 11-0-2 in their last 13 games in Buffalo.

Counterpart of the SBN Team: Check out Die by the Blade for the latest news on the Sabers.

Player statistics at a glance

via hockeydb:

—One of the biggest ‘what could have been’ in this off-season for the Sabers will definitely be about Linus Ullmark’s health. He is a very good goalkeeper and they were very hard on him in the net. But then he got hurt, and man, the other two goalkeepers Carter Hutton and Jonas Johansson only had a victory in 14 decisions (1-11-2) and a defense of 0.883%.

—Jacob Bryson is gaining a lot of brilliance and prominence and could be a player in the future. The 23-year-old picked for the fourth round of 2017 made his NHL debut this season and played more than 20 minutes in four of Buffalo’s last five games, including Thursday night against Pens, where he also recorded three shots on goal . Bryson is a very small defender, but with incredibly smooth skating; very aligned with the “new wave” players like Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes.

Possible Lines

ADVANCE

Taylor Hall – Dylan Cozens? – Sam Reinhart

Victor Olofsson -Eric Staal – Riley Sheahan

Jeff Skinner – Curtis Lazar – Casey Mittelstadt

Tage Thompson -Cody Eakin – Kyle Okposo

DEFENSE

Matt Irwin / Rasmus Ristolainen

Rasmus Dahlin / Colin Miller

Jacob Bryson / Brandon Montour

Announced as titular goalkeeper: Carter Hutton

Scratches: Jack Eichel (injured), Tobias Rieder, Henri Jokiharju

IR: Jake McCabe, Linus Ullmark, William Borgen, Zemgus Girgensons

—After a not-so-good night on the network Thursday, the Sabers have already announced that Hutton will be on the network tonight

—We have to see about the status of Cozens, he was being “evaluated” yesterday and may well be out today and even after taking a big hit on Thursday from Zach Aston-Reese.

He said that

Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger yesterday:

“The guys are trying, but it’s obviously not good enough,” said Krueger. “We are measured by the results and we have to come back tomorrow and no one will feel sorry for us in this situation. We just have to fight to get out of it. Nothing is coming easy, that’s for sure. “

And now for the Pens ..

Lines.

Foward

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 goalkeeper: Tristan Jarry

Scratches: Sam Lafferty, Juuso Riikola, John Marino (upper body injury, day-to-day)

GO: Jason Zucker, Mark Friedman, Jared McCann

Taxi Squad: Yannick Weber, Frederick Gaudreau, Maxime Lagace

– Marino did not train yesterday, adding to Wednesday’s absence on the ice. He skated with the team at Thursday’s morning skate game. That smells like “player is 90%, but why not give him a few extra days, considering that Buffalo stinks”. It will be interesting to see if that is the case and Marino is back on Monday against Boston, when necessary.

Malkin eyeing 1,100

Evgeni Malkin is approaching another milestone in his career. Penguins:

Evgeni Malkin has contributed enormously to the improvement of the Pittsburgh game, as he has won points in 10 of the last 12 games (4G-10A). Malkin enters tomorrow’s game with three points before becoming the 63rd player in NHL history to register 1,100 points in his career. He also joined Mario Lemieux (1,723) and Sidney Crosby (1,288) as the only players in the history of the Penguins to register 1,100 points with the team.

A veteran of 933 games in his career, Malkin aims to become only the 20th player in NHL history to reach that milestone in less than 950 games.

Malkin enters tomorrow’s game with a six-point streak (3G-6A). Only Dougie Hamilton of Carolina (7 games) and David Perron of St. Louis (7 games) have more active NHL streak points than Malkin.

Malkin has been very successful against Buffalo in his career, he has points in 13 consecutive games against Buffalo (7G + 13A) and 57 points (19G + 38A) in 43 career games in total playing the Sabers. With one point today, Malkin will record his first official seven-point streak since November 13-24, 2018 (2G + 8A)