The Pittsburgh Penguins return home for their home opener riding a two-game winning streak to start the season. The Penguins will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are coming off a 2-1 loss against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
When and where: Consol Energy Center (Pittsburgh, PA); 7:00 p.m. (ROOT Sports, TSN)
Season records: Penguins (2-0-0; 4 pts.); Maple Leafs (1-1-0; 2 pts.)
Season series: First meeting of the season
Last meeting: The Penguins and Maple Leafs last faced off on March 7, 2012. It was also the last time the Leafs were in Pittsburgh. The Penguins were led by a two-goal effort from Pascal Dupuis and twenty-two saves from Brad Thiessen for the 3-2 victory.
Key matchups:
1. Mikhail Grabovski: It may be safe to say that Mikhail Grabovski is becoming a “Penguin killer.” In fifteen career games against the Penguins, Grabovski has thirteen points (5 goals, 9 assists). He is also on a five-game points scoring streak, registering nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) during that streak. (via hockey-reference.com)
2. Leafs power outage?: The Maple Leafs come into Pittsburgh with a 25% power play success rate. You would say not bad after two games, right? Consider this though, the Leafs were 1-7 on the power play against the Sabres, and that includes going 0-2 in situations where they had a two-man advantage.
Injuries:
Penguins: None
Maple Leafs: D Jake Gardiner (Concussion)
Additional notes:
1. On Sunday, January 20, the Maple Leafs announced that they had signed Joffrey Lupul to a five-year extension. The extension is worth $26.25 million, and will make him a Leafs through the 2017-2018 season.
Projected lineups:
Penguins (via penguins.nhl.com)
Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Pascal Dupuis
Eric Tangradi-Evgeni Malkin-James Neal
Matt Cooke-Brandon Sutter-Tyler Kennedy
Tanner Glass-Joe Vitale-Craig Adams
Brooks Orpik-Paul Martin
Matt Niskanen-Kris Letang
Simon Despres-Deryk Engelland
Marc-Andre Fleury
Maple Leafs (via editorinleaf.com)
Clarke MacArthur-Tyler Bozak-Phil Kessel
James van Riemsdyk-Mikhail Grabovski-Nikolai Kulemin
Joffrey Lupul-Nazem Kadri-Leo Komarov
Colton Orr-Jay McClement-Mike Brown
Dion Phaneuf-Mike Kostka
Carl Gunnarsson-Cody Franson
John-Michael Liles-Mark Fraser
James Reimer
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