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Pittsburgh Penguins (32-15-8) at Chicago Blackhawks (34-18-4) 12:30PM Eastern/11:30AM Central NBC, TVA, CITY
THE BUZZ
The Pens are 6-3-1 and the Hawks 5-3-2 in their last ten respectively. This one doesn’t need a lot of buildup, the NBC national matinee game between the league’s two marketing darlings. The Pens a re a bit healthier since the last time the two teams met. The Hawks got decent games from recent callups Ryan Hartman and Kyle Cumiskey in a 3-1 win over New Jersey Friday night. Hartman was especially noticeable with 1-2 huge hits. Look for him and Steve Downie to possibly engage at some point.
THE NUMBERS
Power Play Pittsburgh, 8th, 20% Chicago, 12th, 19.1%
Penalty Kill Pittsburgh, 4th, 85.6% Chicago, 1st, 87.8%
5-on-5 GF/GA Pittsburgh, 8th, 1.13 Chicago, 5th, 1.20
THE LINEUPS (PROJECTED)
Penguins
Kunitz Crosby Perron Comeau Malkin Hornqvist Spaling Sutter Bennett Downie Lapierre Adams
Martin Letang Scuderi Despres Pouliot Bortuzzo
Fleury
Blackhawks
Saad Toews Hossa Versteeg Richards Kane Bickell Shaw Sharp Carcillo Kruger Hartman
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Cumiskey Rundblad
Crawford
All for now