Panthers (5-7-4, 3-4-1 Road) at Pens (11-6, 3-4 Home), CONSOL, 7:00 pm ET, ROOT Sports
Maybe if the Penguins dress in Florida Panther sweaters they’d have a better chance of beating the Philadelphia Flyers.
Thursday night in Philly, the Panthers knocked off the Flyers, 5-2, courtesy of two Peter Mueller goals, a four-point effort from rookie Jonathan Huberdeau and a 32-save effort from Scott Clemmensen.
Surprisingly, Florida has fewer regulation losses in their last 10 games than the Penguins. The Panthers have posted a 4-2-4 mark over that span while the Pens have gone 7-3. Of course, Florida’s overall mark of 5-7-4 has them looking at the playoffs from the outside-in.
There’s a good chance young goalie, Jacob Markstrom, could tend net Friday. He was recalled a couple days ago after putting up good numbers in the AHL. The 23-year-old has seen limited action over the past two seasons in the NHL, going 2-5-1.
It appears the Pens will miss the netminder with the best record against them. Jose Theodore and his 20-5-1-3 record against Pittsburgh will likely take a seat on the bench. Clemmensen remains a possibility, but the team recalled Markstrom with the intention of having him play either Thursday in Philadelphia or Friday in Pittsburgh.
As a team, Florida has the worst goal differential mark (-18) in the Eastern Conference, even after Thursday’s 5-2 victory.
The Penguins beat the Panthers both times the teams met in 2011-12 at Consol Energy Center. On Oct. 11, 2011, Pascal Dupuis scored a goal and added an assist in a
4-2 win. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 of 34 shots in a game Florida outshot Pittsburgh, 34 to 29. Theodore gave up four goals in 29 shots for the loss.
The Pens then won a
2-1 shootout March 9, 2012. Fleury was named the No. 1 star, making 28 saves through overtime and stopping both shootout chances.
The Flower is expected to start in goal Friday night. He probably has more support than he’s had all season after Tomas Vokoun’s soft goal gave Philadelphia a late regulation win on Wednesday.
*****
Team Stats, Thoughts
Goals For/Against
Pens: 3.29/2.59
Panthers: 2.44/3.62
The Pens average the third-most goals per game while Florida scores the seventh fewest.
Pittsburgh gives up the 15th-most goals, right in the middle of the pack. The Panthers allow more goals per game than any other team in the league.
The Penguins have also scored 23 goals in seven home games; Florida has 16 goals in eight road contests – including their five-goal outburst Thursday.
5-on-5 Play For/Against
Pens: 1.17
Panthers: 0.65
If the Pens and their opponents scored the same number of goals at even-strength, 5-on-5, then the number would be 1.00. Therefore, you can see Pittsburgh’s doing a decent job in this category with a 1.17 mark. Florida is not.
Power Play
Pens: 8-for-30, 26.7 percent at home
Panthers: 4-for-28, 14.3 percent away
Penalty Kill
Pens: 19-of-25, 76 percent at home
Panthers: 20-of-28, 71.4 percent away
The Penguins have the fourth-worst home penalty-kill and the Panthers have the fifth-worst on the road. Special team figure to play a huge role in Friday’s contest.
Giveaways-Takeaways
Pens: 120-75
Panthers: 94-96
Pittsburgh has a minus-45 giveaway/takeaway differential while Florida has a plus-2 diff. Toronto and Philadelphia have the two worst ratio’s, with Pittsburgh coming in sixth or seventh. The Pens will need to hold onto the puck Friday.
Faceoffs
Pens: 53.5 percent overall
Panthers: 50.1 percent overall
The Penguins are fourth in total faceoffs, a shockingly good number for a team which has struggled in the circle.
Sidney Crosby takes the bulk of draws for Pittsburgh, averaging 57.4 percent after winning 21 of 28 against the Flyers on Wednesday. He does even better at CONSOL, checking in with a 64.2 mark. Unheralded Joe Vitale leads the team with a 65.2 win rate, but he’s taken 132 draws to Crosby’s 406. Vitale also does better at home, winning nearly 70 percent (68.4) of the time.
Jerred Smithson leads Florida with a 55.6 win rate and actually does better on the road (56.8 percent) than at home (54.3).
Ice Time
Pens
Defenseman Kris Letang: 25:48
Defenseman Paul Martin: 25:33
Defenseman Brooks Orpik: 23:09
Center Sidney Crosby: 21:24
Defenseman Matt Niskanen: 19:41
Panthers
Defenseman Brian Campbell: 25:24
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov: 21:46
Defenseman Filip Kuba: 20:52
Defenseman Mike Weaver: 20:48
Center Stephen Weiss: 19:18
Left Wing Tomas Fleischmann: 18:19
Power-Play Ice Time
Pens
Evgeni Malkin: 5:06 TOI
Sidney Crosby: 5:00
James Neal: 4:36
Kris Letang: 4:36
Chris Kunitz: 4:09
Panthers
Brian Campbell: 4:34 TOI
Alexei Kovalev: 3:12
Tomas Fleischmann: 3:10
Stephen Weiss: 2:59
Jonathan Huberdeau: 2:57
Short-Handed Ice
Pens
Brooks Orpik: 4:23 TOI
Paul Martin: 3:43
Matt Cooke: 3:03
Craig Adams: 3:01
Kris Letang: 2:39
*Crosby ranks 11th with 58 seconds, though he and the team are still looking for their first shortie of the season.
Panthers
Mike Weaver: 3:33 TOI
Ed Jovanovski: 3:13
Filip Kuba: 2:43
Jerred Smithson: 2:18
Marcel Goc: 2:11
*****
Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson doesn’t want to leave Ottawa
"As of now, 'no,' " said Alfredsson when asked if he would go elsewhere. "I don't think you never say never. Where we are in the playoff race, I hope we can continue and stay in here. That's definitely where my focus is. I'm not even thinking or worrying about anything else than this right now."
*****
Eaton making case for return to Penguins
Kris Letang had this to say of Eaton.
“He was, I think, my first D partner, so it’s fun to see him around,” Letang said. “He’s a great guy. He’s great in the dressing room, great on the ice and it’s good to have him back.”
*****
Erik Karlsson speaks for the first time since suffering an Achilles cut against Matt Cooke and the Pens
Bruce Garrioch @SunGarrioch
"I knew exactly who it was so I was taking bit of caution," says Karlsson
Doesn't think it would happen if it was another player than Cooke.
Didn't reply to Cooke's text. "He has been after me before." Said it shouldn't have happened.
"At least he reached out which I didn't expect. We're going to leave it at that," said Karlsson.
Knows who will hit him and who is not. "He knows exactly what he is doing out there. That is why I am sitting here with leg in cast."
Karlsson says he will wear Kevlar sock when he returns.
"I don't think he did it on purpose ... He meant to hit me hard and knock me out." Says Karlsson on Cooke.
"Everytime I'm outside the rink people wish me well," says Karlsson.
"Right now I just lay on the couch and watch golf," says Karlsson.
Erin Nicks @erinnicks
Karlsson: "I stand behind (Eugene Melnyk) and his comments."
*****
Tweet 'O the Day
Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins
#Pens rushes: Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis Cooke-Malkin-Neal Bennett-Sutter-Kennedy Glass-Jeffrey-Adams
*****
Poll Results
Question: What went wrong Wednesday, why couldn't the Penguins beat Philadelphia at CONSOL Energy Center?
Inadequate goaltending from Tomas Vokoun captured the most votes, at an even 50 percent. A lack of composure was the second-most popular answer, with 42 percent of respondents choosing to point out Pittsburgh’s lack of self-control. No other answer got more than 27 percent of the vote.
The need for a traffic-clearing defender or two got 27 percent. Poor defensive gameplan was fourth at 19 percent. Bad matchups such as Sean Couturier on Evgeni Malkin collected 17 percent to round out the top five voted answers.
One thing’s for sure: there certainly wasn’t a lack of answers to choose from.
*****
So the United States’ win against the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics was 33 years ago today. The Penguins had one of Team USA’s best forwards, Mark Johnson, under their control. It was great to see a forward with a scoring touch getting primed to play for Pittsburgh. That’s what I was thinking. Of course, the USA’s Gold Medal wasn’t bad, either. Johnson never really panned out with the Pens, but at least Pittsburgh fans got his dad, Badger Bob, a decade later.
*****
Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»