Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (40-22-16, 96 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division) @ New Jersey Devils (40-34-3, 83 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and MSGSN, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The home stretch of the regular season is here! The Pens kick off four-games-in-six days to wrap up the season, heading home on Saturday for fan appreciation day on the home finale against Washington (3:00pm start) then head down
to the Capital City for a 3:00pm Sunday rematch. Then Game No 82 is Tuesday night in St. Louis.
Opponent Track: It’s a lost season in New Jersey, but the Devils haven’t gone away quietly – they’re 8-4-1 in their last 13 games. Before Tuesday night’s big 5-1 loss to the Flyers, NJ was outscoring the opposition a combined 48-36. It doesn’t look like they’re coasting for home in the final week of the season, even having been formally eliminated from playoff contention considering that NJ did outshoot Philadelphia 24-20 on Tuesday. The score shows the game didn’t go their way, but it’s not like the Devils got pounded or severely out-played despite the lopsided final score.
Season Series: The Penguins hold a 2-0-1 record against NJ this season, losing the first meeting in a shootout (2-1) way back on November 8th, followed by two matching4-1 Pittsburgh wins on January 8th and February 26th.
Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, the Penguins are 7-3-2 in their last 12 visits to the Prudential Center.
Getting to know the Devils
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Timo Meier – Nico Hischier – Dawson Mercer
Jesper Bratt – Jack Hughes – Connor Brown
Lenni Hameenaho – Cody Glass – Nick Bjugstad
Paul Cotter – Marc McLaughlin – Brian Halonen
DEFENSEMEN
Jonas Siegenthaler / Dougie Hamilton
Luke Hughes / Jonathan Kovacevic
Brendon Dillon / Simon Nemec
Goalies: Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen
Potential scratches: Maxim Tsyplakov, Arseni Gritsyuk (injured), Evgenii Dadonov, Dennis Cholowski
Injured Reserve: Brett Pesce, Stefan Noesen, Zack MacEwen
- The Devils are looking at a likely 13th place finish, despite 40 wins and at least 83 points. For a frame of reference, the Pens finished 13th in the East in 2024-25 with 34 wins and 80 points. It was a tough conference this season. It’s not a lineup without talent but there definitely is some work to do to boost the bottom-six and figure out the defense and goaltending.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Now one of the most famous hockey players in the world, Jack Hughes has been going crazy lately with 13 points (5G+8A) in his last six games. Hughes has been electric when playing, with the ‘when playing’ being a caveat being as this will be the third straight season he’s missed 20 games.
- Markstrom is one of the biggest personifications/examples of why former Penguin AGM Tom Fitzgerald lost his job as NJD general manager. Fitzgerald traded a first round pick for Markstrom, who has struggled since coming to New Jersey. Oh yeah, and then he extended the 36-year old goalie to a fairly pricey $6.0m cap hit that will run through 2027-28 while he was injured. Lots of yikes with that whole situation.
- Timo Meier is another example, it looked like a great add but he’s mostly just been OK. OK isn’t good enough to bring in on a big trade and then hand a $70 million contract. The Devils have Meier through 2030-31 with some NMC partially in play, they’ll have to figure out how to unlock his game in the near future to improve the team’s fortunes.
- Ondrej Palat ended up being another in the ‘bag of bad decisions’ for Fitzgerald. Given a $30 million contract, the Devils had to trade a third round pick to get rid of Palat, taking on the under-performing Tsyplakov who is still signed for next season at a $2.5 million cap hit. There’s a hypothetical parallel world where Meier/Markstrom/Palat all are hits and help power New Jersey’s core with the Hughes’, Hischier and Bratt to becoming one of the top teams in the East, but it didn’t end up working out that way in this one.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Egor Chinakhov – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Tommy Novak – Rickard Rakell – Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard / Kris Letang
Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Stuart Skinner, Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov
Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves, Jack St. Ivany
IR: Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones (season-ending shoulder surgery)
- Rest is a weapon and one the Pens were finally able to use a little bit during their three-day break from the last game on Sunday. The whole team was off on Monday, and then Tuesday only a bare bones crew skated (Skinner, Silovs, Murashov, Brazeau, Girard, A. Hayes, K. Hayes, Solovyov, Graves, St. Ivany) which gave the bulk of their squad two full days off.
- It looks like Skinner should be good to go with the status of his eye after dealing with swelling on Sunday – at least to serve as backup. In addition to skating Tuesday, he took the full practice yesterday and relegated Murashov to more of a third goalie role. Dan Muse announced all three goalies would travel to New Jersey, so Murashov will be sticking with the team just in case, but it doesn’t look like he will be playing tonight.
- Goalie drama aside, all the other lines and pairings remained static from previous days.
- Girard has four points (4A) in the last five games, while recording a +7 in the plus/minus category. That stat can have its broader issues, but a good indicator of goals going in the right net lately for the Girard/Letang pair.
- Soderblom has six points (3G+3A) in his last six games.
- Chinakhov has 19 points (7G+12A) over his last 17 games, with a stick tap to Pens PR for the last few recent stats.
Rakell’s goal and point streak
In addition to his eight-game point streak, Rakell has scored at least one goal in the last five games. Incredible amount of production out of him lately.
A playoff clinch tonight?
The Penguins’ magic number to secure a playoff spot is down to 2. A win tonight and they’ll be officially in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. There are other possible clinching scenarios: a Pittsburgh OT/SO loss coupled with a Columbus loss in any form tonight against Buffalo also ties up a Penguin playoff spot. Finally, if the Pens lost in regulation tonight they would still be officially playoff bound this evening should Columbus lose in regulation AND the Islanders (vs. Toronto) lose in any fashion.
