Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (13-7-5, 31 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Dallas Stars (19-5-5, 43 points, 2nd place Central Division)
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Victory+, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: Time to go back home, Pittsburgh gets a five-game homestand starting with Anaheim on Tuesday, Montreal on Thursday and San Jose next Saturday.
Opponent Track: The Stars have things figured out lately, they’ve only lost twice in the last month since November 6th (going 12-2-2) since then. They’re a hard team to beat, going 7-0-2 in their last nine games and winners of four of their last five, including a 4-1 win over San Jose in their last game Friday night.
Season Series: Dallas comes to Pittsburgh deep into the season on March 28th.
Getting to know the Stars
Sam Steel – Wyatt Johnston – Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Jamie Benn
Oscar Back – Justin Hryckowian – Mavrik Bourque
Colin Blackwell – Radek Faksa – Nathan Bastian
Esa Lindell/ Miro Heiskanen
Vladislav Kolyachonok / Ilya Lyubushkin
Kyle Capobianco / Alex Petrovic
Goalies: Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith
Potential scratches: none
Injured Reserve: Tyler Seguin (torn ACL), Lian Bischel, Thomas Harley, Matt Duchene, Nils Lundqvist, Adam Erne
- Injuries are starting to pile up for the Stars with Seguin and Bischel recently going on the IR. Team Canada’s Thomas Harley is in there too, opening the door for former Penguin Kolyachonok to get back in the lineup.
- In a lot of ways this Dallas lineup, structure and injury situation looks a lot like Pittsburgh’s previous opponent over in Tampa. The Stars, like the Lightning, have also both been really good in the last 10, 12 games, despite some their adversity and fairly patchwork-looking lower part of the lineup. Some of the formula is the same, if you have enough firepower on the top two lines and a really good goalie, that’s enough to get momentum going for a quality team to get in a groove. Of course, Dallas has their most key defender (Heiskanen), a luxury the Lightning don’t have these days.
- Hintz isn’t a complete unknown and has been on the radar as far back as a great playoff back in 2019 as rookie, but I confess I didn’t realize he has four straight 65+ point seasons and has averaged 33 goals from 2021-25. Sneaky great player there that doesn’t catch enough attention.
- Still can’t believe that somehow Rantanen ended up on a division rival to Colorado. That would be like the Penguins somehow getting Zach Werenski or Sebastian Aho (well, the forward one). Stuff like that for an elite player in his prime getting away is so rare in the modern day NHL, and then to wind up on a quality team in the same division? Still hard to believe things played out the way they did.
- Benn, 36, is getting close to the end of the line but is still kickin’. He’s been a regular with Dallas since 2009 and accepted a one year, $1.0 million contract to come back this season. Benn’ been around so long he was teammates with players that were from a different era — Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen, Marty Turco. Benn’s one of those vets where the only thing missing is a Cup. The Stars have been relatively close lately, three straight WCF losses and a SCF loss before that in 2020, can Benn get there before his time runs out?
Key matchup: Dallas offense vs. Pittsburgh defense
Dallas has an interesting advanced stat profile. Many a top team in the league has a good shot-based process where they control the puck in the offensive zone and pile up way more shots on goal and shot attempts than their opponent. The Stars, not so much. They don’t dominate in control like that, but they are very effective at finishing and scoring goals in the opportunities that they do create. The Stars aren’t usually out there constantly pressuring and building sequences into goals (ala a Carolina or Colorado), Dallas is going to lay in the weeds and then, bang, generate a chance (and probably score on it).
That will present an interesting challenge for the Penguins, who usually concede a good bit on the rush.
Kevin Hayes – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Mantha
Rutger McGroarty – Ben Kindel – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Boko Imama
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Joona Koppanen, Matt Dumba, Harrison Brunicke (AHL rehab assignment)
IR: Filip Hallander, Justin Brazeau, Rickard Rakell, Caleb Jones, Noel Acciari
- It’s a big “we’ll see” on these projected lines after yesterday’s practice had Novak on the first line, Malkin getting a day off and injured players Brazeau and Acciari potentially one step closer to returning. Presumably Malkin should be back, and Kyle Dubas’s timeline on the others would suggest they won’t be quite ready yet, though Dubas could have been conservative with his public projections.
