Game Preview: Detroit Red Wings @ Pittsburgh Penguins November 13, 2024

Who: Detroit Red Wings (6-7-1, 13 points, 7th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (6-9-2, 14 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

Here’s how to watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh locally, TNT nationally and streaming on Max

The path of the pens lies before us: The Pens travel to Columbus for a game on Friday and make a quick trip home to face the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. Then there’s a bit of a lull in the schedule with two days off, a home game against Tampa next Tuesday, followed by two more days off.

Enemy bar: The Red Wings have been off for three days, and the break came at a good time as they have lost their last two games by a combined score of 7-1 (3-1 against Toronto on Friday and 4-0 against the Red Wings ). Rangers their last game on Saturday). After tonight, Detroit flies to California to play each of the three CA teams.

Season series: The Pens have beaten the Red Wings once before, 6-3 on October 10th in Joel Blomqvist’s NHL debut (seems like a long time ago, right?). After tonight there is one more PIT/DET game on December 31st.

Hidden statistics: Sidney Crosby has 46 points (18G-28A) in 36 career games against the Detroit Red Wings. He has scored multiple points in eight of his last 11 games against them (7G-12A), stick tap for Pens PR.

Get to know the Red Wings

Projected lines

FORWARD

Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond

Andrew Copp – JT Compher – Patrick Kane

Jonatan Berggren – Marco Kasper – Vladimir Tarasenko

Michael Rasmussen – Joe Veleno – Christian Fischer

DEFENDER

Simon Edvinsson / Moritz Seider

Ben Chiarot / Jeff Petry

Erik Gustafsson / Justin Holl

Goalkeeper: Cam Talbot has announced his start (Ville Husso replacement)

Possible scratches: Tyler Motte, Albert Johansson, Alex Lyon (lower body injury)

IR: none

—Every PIT/DET game lately has been an absolute feeding frenzy for Detroit’s top team. DeBrincat, Larkin and Raymond each scored six points against Pittsburgh last season. In the most recent meeting last month, the trio combined for six points, led by Cat with 2G+1A. Heaven only knows how the Penguins can limit the damage, but it’s no secret where the defensive focus should be tonight.

—Detroit is becoming a case study in rebuilding, having not made the playoffs in nine seasons. The lineup has some very nice pieces, but overall the team lacked the traction to take the next step. They are just two points out of the final playoff spot, but have only scored 34 goals this season (31st in the NHL).

Player stats

(above hockeydb)

—Pittsburgh reportedly tried to sign Vladimir Tarasenko, and considering he only had two goals and three points in 13 games to start, it looks like they decided to take Detroit’s offer instead to accept.

—Ville Husso’s situation was similar to Tristan Jarry’s this season. Detroit waived Hussao shortly after the Pens set up Husso for six goals, and he went to the AHL to work on his game. He’s back now and played just his second NHL game of the season on Saturday against NYR (allowing three goals on 23 shots in a loss). Of course, there are differences as Husso’s contract expires after this year, but the Pens and Wings are in a similar boat, where their high-priced and presumptive No. 1 goaltender will have to step back into the shoes after a few shaky games.

– And now to the pens

Infographic courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins PR

Projected lines

FORWARD

Drew O’Connor – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Bryan Rust

Jesse Puljujarvi – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

Anthony Beauvillier – Sam Poulin – Valtteri Puustinen

DEFENDER

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Jack St. Ivany

Goalkeeper: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist, Tristan Jarry

Possible scratches: Ryan Shea, Sam Poulin, Cody Glass (concussion) and one of the goalies

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Kevin Hayes (weekly upper body injury)

– The Pens practiced yesterday but did not make any line rushes, so take the above with a grain of salt. After Lars Eller’s move, there are already changes. Tonight should be the NHL season debut for Sam Poulin, who was recently recalled and now has room to fit into the lineup that now has Eller out.

– As expected, Hayes and Glass were not on the ice at this point in their respective rehab processes.

—Could this be the night Jarry comes back into the game? It stands to reason that they probably shouldn’t keep him on ice forever after he played well in the AHL and the team could use some sort of rallying point right now. Blomqvist was just withdrawn, Nedeljkovic is always an option that the team seems to prefer and rely on these days, so it will be interesting to see how this decision plays out.

Fry the wings at home

The Penguins have been great at PPG Paints lately when Detroit comes to town. From Pens PR:

The Penguins enter the game with points from nine consecutive home games against Detroit and are 7-0-2 since January 13, 2018. It is the team’s second-longest active home point streak against any team.

PIT’s longest home point streaks against one team:

Team Streak Record Start Date

Columbus 15 15-0-0 December 21, 2015
Detroit 9 7-0-2 January 13, 2018
Philadelphia 8 6-0-2 March 6, 2021
Vancouver 5 3-0-2 October 16, 2018
Nashville 4 4-0-0 December 28, 2019
St. Louis 4 4-0-0 December 4, 2019

During this series, Pittsburgh has outscored Detroit by a 47-22 margin and the team’s power play success rate is 45.2% (14/31).

The PK cue could prove important for the Red Wings – Detroit has killed just 65.0% of opponents’ power plays this season (31st in the NHL). The Pens’ power play hasn’t been particularly impressive of late, but tonight’s game could be an opportunity for them to get back on track in that regard.