Who: Detroit Red Wings (24-14-3, 51 points, 1st place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (17-12-9, 43 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Broadcast locally
Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FSSN Detroit, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The grind continues with a pair of afternoon games this weekend. The Pens and Red Wings will rematch in Detroit on Saturday afternoon (noon start), then Pittsburgh stays on the road to see Columbus on Sunday (3:00pm eastern start). Then comes a rare three-day break with no games until the Pens host the Devils a week from tonight.
Opponent Track: The Christmas break came at a bad time for Detroit; their 9-2-1 record to start December was one of the best in the NHL. They came back from the break with a 5-2 loss to Carolina before steadying and getting two wins after that, including a 2-1 home win against Winnipeg last night.
Season Series: This will be the first PIT/DET game of the season, we won’t have to wait long for the second since these teams will meet again on Saturday, as mentioned above. The third and final matchup pops up on March 31st in Pittsburgh.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins have points in 10-consecutive home games against Detroit (7-0-3) dating back to Jan. 13, 2018 (stick tap to Pens PR).
Getting to know the Red Wings
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Emmitt Finnie – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat – Andrew Copp – Patrick Kane
Michael Rasmussen – JT Compher – Mason Appleton
Marco Kasper – Nate Danielson – James van Riemsdyk
DEFENSEMEN
Simon Edvinsson / Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot / Axel Sandin-Pellikka
Albert Johansson / Jacob Bernard-Docker
Goalies: Cam Talbot (John Gibson started last night)
Potential scratches: John Leonard, Elmer Soderblom, Travis Harmonic
Injured Reserve: none
- Despite having a name that sounds like he could have been the sixth male lead in It’s a Wonderful Life (hey, it’s still on top of mind this time of year), 20-year old Emmitt Finnie has been a surprise success story in his rookie season. It’s not too often a guy goes from seventh round draft pick to NHL first line in under three years!
- The Pens have struggled mightily in recent years against the DeBrincat-Larkin-Raymond combo, which fortunately for Pittsburgh has been slightly split up for the time being. 2024-25 was a slight down season for the three against Pittsburgh, ‘the Cat’ and Raymond still managed to each record five points in three games. The trio all produced six points in three games vs PIT in 2023-24. They have done really well at finding time, space and then filling up the net against the Pens in recent years after making a series of high-skilled passes, plays and shots. Of course, all are talented players that produce points against just about everyone, it’s just at times they’ve taken it to a different level and absolutely wrecked games with bursts of brilliance against the Pens who have looked powerless at times to stop those skilled players. So, uh, good luck!
- Is this going to be the year the Yzer-plan finally bears fruit and gets Detroit back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016? They’re right in the mix, being in first can give a little bit of a false sense of security since some Atlantic teams are right on Detroit’s heels. To make matters worse for them, the two Florida teams have really gotten things in gear the last 15, 20 games to keep the pressure up.
Season stats
via hockeydb
(Note: does not include last night’s game)
- The injury situation has been extremely favorable for the Red Wings in the first half of a season where injuries have been up across the league this year. Detroit has only used 24 different skaters and two goalies (compared to the Pens 33 and 4, respectively) and almost all their key pieces have been healthy enough to play in just about all of the games except for Patrick Kane. Availability can build chemistry and cohesion, it’s been a good formula for Detroit so far.
Mo knows
There’s a pretty good case to be made that Moritz Seider is the best defender in the NHL, some may prefer the sublime skills of Cale Makar (and it’s hard to argue against it) but Seider deserves to be mentioned right in the tippy top with the Makar’s, Quinn Hughes’s, Miro Heiskanen’s and Zach Werenski’s of the very best around.
Seider ranks 19th in the NHL among defensemen in hits (69) and eighth in blocked shots (87), while being sixth in points, putting up 24 points (6G+18A) in the last 26 games. He’s right up there in goals against replacement in the whole league, all while averaging just over 25 minutes per game. Still at just 24-years old, Seider is an amazing force multiplier right now.
Key matchup: Similar styles
In a lot of ways the statistical matchup for this game is the meme of the two Spiderman’s pointing at each other. Pittsburgh and Detroit match up similarly in strengths and weaknesses.
Both teams have been top-half of the league in shot-tracked metrics in terms of 5v5 Corsi, Fenwick and expected goals. Both are bottom-half of the league in terms of 5v5 Corsi, Fenwick and expected goals against. Both have very good power plays and middle-of-the-road penalty kills. There are some differences; Detroit has struggled to finish chances, which results in a weak 5v5 actual goals. The Penguins have had better overall goaltending, though that number could be said to be stronger than the current goaltending on hand.
Overall it makes for two teams with similar styles and outlooks. Both are likely to generate a lot, and also give up a lot and have net advantages on special teams due to their strong power plays. Since the Red Wings played and traveled last night, the onus will fall to the Pens to take advantage of that situation and playing a backup goalie in Talbot who hasn’t exactly been stingy this season.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Justin Brazeau
Ville Koivunen – Ben Kindel – Rutger McGroarty
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Brett Kulak / Kris Letang
Ryan Shea / Jack St. Ivany
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Yegor Chinakhov (?), Kevin Hayes, Connor Clifton
IR: Evgeni Malkin, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones
- The Pens were off yesterday, which will make today’s morning skate worth watching for accurate lines. The team will likely look to get Chinakhov into the lineup, we’ll see at which player’s expense. Koivunen stands out as a possible target there.
- The goalie decision will be an interesting one to track too. Skinner is coming off a great game making 27 stops on 28 shots against Carolina, do the Pens give him a little bit of a chance to run with it? Silovs has won two straight games for himself and wouldn’t be a bad choice to go back to either. With three games coming up in the next four days, there will be time for each to play here soon, the splits of which goalie will get two of those games will be intriguing to see.
Infographic courtesy of the Penguins
(With 2026, so is the return of the infographic to the previews! Somehow these emails were unknowingly getting hung up in the spam folder to date, whoops!)
