Who: Chicago Blackhawks (21-23-9, 51 points, 6th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (26-14-11, 63 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and CHSN in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: It’s a week-long sprint to the Olympic break finish line for the Pens. They’ll stay at home on Saturday to see the Rangers in a 3:30pm game, then Ottawa comes to the ‘Burgh on Monday night. After that, the Pens quickly
jet over to a game against the Islanders on Tuesday night and stay in the Empire State for a tilt with Buffao on Thursday heading into the three-week break.
Opponent Track: Chicago fell 4-3 in a shootout on Tuesday night in their last game, extending their current losing streak to three games (0-1-2). Their last five games have been very tight ones: a 2-0 win over Winnipeg last Monday (sealed with an ENG), then a pair of shootout games (winning against Carolina followed by losing to Tampa). On Sunday they did suffer a 5-1 loss to Florida (but even that was 3-1 late until an ENG and last minute goal) and the last shootout game against Minnesota. Down to the wire types of games decided very late for the most part, Chicago has been able to manage a 2-1-2 record to show for it.
Season Series: The Penguins put a 7-3 beating on the Blackhawks in Chicago on December 28th in the first game back from the break to get their current strong run of play going, tonight will be the final PIT/CHI game of the season.
Hidden Stat: Good luck to the power plays tonight. Since Christmas, Chicago is second in the NHL with a 90.5% success rate on their PK. The Penguins are just behind them at 90.0%. A key to success has been staying out of the penalty box in the first place, Chicago has only been shorthanded 2.47 times per game in this stretch (6th best in NHL) which has helped them to allow only four goals in their last 17 games playing shorthanded.
Hidden Stat 2.0: The Penguins have points in 17 of their 23 games against Western Conference Opponents this season (11-6-6), courtesy of Pens PR.
Getting to know the Blackhawks
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Frank Nazar – Connor Bedard – Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Greene – Oliver Moore – Andre Burakovsky
Tyler Bertuzzi – Jason Dickinson – Ilya Mikheyev
Ryan Donato – Marcus Foligno – Landon Slaggert
DEFENSEMEN
Alex Vlasic / Louis Crevier
Wyatt Kaiser / Artyom Levshunov
Matt Grzelcyk / Connor Murphy
Goalies: Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom
Potential scratches: Sam Lafferty, Colton Dach
Injured Reserve: Shea Weber, Ryan Ellis
- Chicago plays again tomorrow night at home against Columbus, they might have a decision to make in net accordingly. Knight has started six of their last eight games.
- The Blackhawks certainly qualify as one of the youngest teams, 11 of the 22 players on the active roster are under 25 years old, including the majority of their current top-six forwards, the entirety of their top-4 defenders and a budding starting goalie. Foligno and Murphy are the only 31+ players around, and they don’t have huge on ice roles.
- Always a chuckle to see an actual Hall of Famer still on a team’s payroll as the contract winds out. This is the final season of Weber’s massive 14-year contract that Philadelphia tried to sign him to in 2012 but was matched by Nashville.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Bertuzzi is having an interesting season. It stands out in memory how much he was goal hanging and playing behind the defense looking for breakaways against the Penguins last month. His defensive impact is among the worst in the league, his finishing and scoring is near the very top. It might not be his intention but he looked like a guy just trying to pad his own personal stats. Might be something to keep an eye on tonight, at the very least Bertuzzi is cheating a lot to generate offense, which I guess you get some leeway with when a lot of goals are going in.
- Is Kevin Korchinski the next Ty Smith? Both made the NHL super early, then didn’t stick. In a perfect world and for Chicago’s development they would need former first round picks like Korchinski and Sam Rinzel to start becoming NHL regulars now in their draft+4 seasons. A rebuild will struggle to launch without pieces like that growing. On the plus side, 2024 second overall pick Artyom Levshunov has lived up to his draft placement so far.
- The trade of Seth Jones for Knight and a 2026 first rounder looks mighty good for the Blackhawks these days (didn’t work out so poorly for Florida, either) with the Panthers dabbling around the middle of the standings so far this season. The best part for Chicago is Knight running with the opportunity to be a quality option in net, the Blackhawks will eat a $2.5 million penalty for retaining a piece of Jones’s cap hit but that looks well worth it at this point.
Key to the game: Pittsburgh taking advantage of Chicago’s 5v5 struggles
Chicago has managed to paper over some bad results lately to the tun of a decent 7-5-2 record in calendar 2026 despite a horrible process ranking them at the bottom of the NHL in the new year. That record was boosted winning five of six games towards the beginning of January, including impressive wins over Dallas and Vegas and later some results with a victory over Carolina (shootout) and a shootout loss to Tampa. Chicago is living proof that in today’s NHL a team can truly get any result on any given night, illustrated by the Hawks also losing to Calgary this month.
The stingy PK mentioned above is a big factor in how Chicago has been able to string together some results despite a terrible 5v5 goal share and process behind it since the turn of the year. This should play into the Pens’ hands, Pittsburgh is out-scoring the opposition by a combined 50-26 at even strength since Christmas. The table should be set for them to keep that train rolling around against an opponent that is exceptionally weak in that area.
One other positive takeaway from that graphic about the Penguins is that their recent play doesn’t feature an unsustainable PDO-aided turn (which fellow 2026 standouts like Buffalo, Utah, Boston and Detroit can’t say as easily).
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Anthony Mantha – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Kevin Hayes – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Ilya Solovyov / Ryan Shea
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner
Potential Scratches: Bryan Rust (serving the first game of his three-game suspension), Connor Clifton
IR: Ryan Graves, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones, Jack St. Ivany
- We’ll take a stab at the lines, the league-mandated absence of Rust will be one the Pens have to navigate over the next few games. Unlike going on the IR, Rust must still be kept on the 23-player roster during his suspension. That shouldn’t handcuff the team thanks to St. Ivany going on IR to open up a spot for a call-up, if they wanted to make one. Unless that news comes out today, it looks like Hayes will be back in the lineup as the only other available forward on the NHL roster currently, unless the team looks to go with 11 forwards and seven defenseman, because..
- Penguins presumably will get their first look at their most recent trade addition of Solovyov tonight, based on practice indications from Tuesday. So they could use Rust’s open spot in the lineup to dress Clifton and roll with 11 forwards if they so choose, we’ll have to see at morning skate today if Hayes or Clifton’s late participation suggests which one will be scratched. (Or, potentially both could be if the team does make that call-up from the AHL). Lots of potential scenarios to play out there.
- Interesting week for the Penguins. They flew home from Vancouver on Monday, had one of the season’s longest practices of well over an hour on Tuesday (plus the annual charity gala at night), an off day yesterday and now will try to hit the ground running with five games over the next eight nights.
- Now that Skinner has started in three of the last four games, does the team go back to him tonight? It would make sense based on the scheduling. Play Skinner tonight and then Silovs on Saturday afternoon and Skinner would have plenty of time to get ready to play again for two out of the final three games next week.
- Then again, Silovs hasn’t played in a full week now since his last action of a strong game against Edmonton, so it wouldn’t be a bad choice to get him back in there either. Any decision by the coaches looks like a good one when both goalies are playing well.
- Skinner, by the way, is a 5-0-0 lifetime against the Blackhawks with a 1.98 goals against and a .925 save percentage.
- The whole second line have active three-game point streaks; Malkin (3G+2A) Novak (1G+3A) and Chinakhov (2G+1A). Ryan Shea (3A) also has points in three-straight games.
