Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (32-35-12, 76 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ New Jersey Devils (41-30-7, 89 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and MSGSN in the local markets, NHL Network to the national audience

Pens’ Path Ahead: The road ends here, at least literally speaking for the Pens’ last away game of the season. They return home to play Boston on Sunday afternoon (3:30 start) and then finish things out with Game 82 on Thursday April 17th against Washington

Opponent Track: The Diablos lost 7-2 to Boston on Tuesday, and wait that must be a typo because no one loses to the Bruins these days, let alone in a blowout. Yep, that’s right. NJ will be looking to buckle down and bounce-back from that embarrassing performance. Then again, it’s been locked in for weeks if not months that NJ will face Carolina in the first round of the playoffs, they haven’t had a lot to be motivated about. But you have to think responding from a terrible prior game is going to make for a concerted effort to take it to the Pens tonight.

Season Series: New Jersey took round one back in December in a 3-0 shutout win. The Devils then outlasted the Penguins 3-2 in a shootout in early February and Pittsburgh won a 7-3 game in the last meeting between the teams on March 15th. This will be the fourth and final PIT/NJ game, a regulation win today would give Pittsburgh a 2-1-1 record and chance to came the slightly better end of the series (NJ entering with a 2-1-0 record).

Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR: Dating back to Mar. 20, 2021, the Penguins have points in seven of its last 10 games on the road against the Devils (6-3-1). (I would have guessed it was a much worse record than that…)

Getting to know the Devils

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Stefan Noesen – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt

Erik Haula – Dawson Mercer – Timo Meier

Ondrej Palat – Justin Dowling – Tomas Tatar

Paul Cotter – Cody Glass – Daniel Sprong

DEFENSEMEN

Luke Hughes -/Brett Pesce

Brian Dumoulin / Jonathan Kovacevic

Brendon Dillon /Seamus Casey

Goalies: Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen

Scratches: Dougie Hamilton (injured, out for at least regular season), Nathan Bastian, Nolan Foote, Curtis Lazar, Kurtis MacDermid, Dennis Cholowski, Simon Nemec

IR: Jack Hughes (shoulder surgery, out until fall), Jonas Sigenthaler

—Elliotte Friedman said there’s a “chance” Hamilton could return from injury during the first round but it didn’t sound like he’s ramping up and known to be ready to hit the ground running in time for Game 1. That’s a big development. It’s at least cleared the way for the youngster Casey to get some NHL time but all things considered you know the Devils would prefer having their top guy healthy at this part of the season.

—NJD is team No. 8 for Daniel Sprong, picked up at the trade deadline. He had no points in his first seven games with Jersey but then got an assist in the 7-2 loss last game out. Averaging only 11:39 per game he’s a bit player for them.

—Glass started out hot with the Devs by putting up 2G+3A in his first five games since the Pens sent him over in a trade deadline day move. Wouldn’t you know it, he’s cooled off with just 0G+1A in his last five games and his ice time has cratered in the last two. Was cool to see him get off to a great start but it looks like water has quickly found its level there.

—On the other hand it looks like Dumoulin has been used in a measured but effective way. He’s been bouncing around lately too, NJD is his third new team since leaving Pittsburgh at the end of the 2023 season. Due to injuries and his teams not qualifying Dumoulin has only played 1 playoff game since the end of the 2021 season (and that was in 2022), it’ll be nice to see him have the opportunity to get back at it.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—Captain Nico Hischier has answered the call to step his game up since Jack Hughes (shoulder surgery) was lost for the balance of the season. Hischier leads the Devils with 9G+9A in the 15 games since Hughes was knocked out. Other big performers: Jesper Bratt (4G+14A) and brother Luke Hughes (2G+12A).

—The Devs really need to get Markstrom on track. He’s been up and down in his first season in New Jersey, an injury suffered on Jan 22nd didn’t help things. Right when it looked like Markstrom was rounding a corner with a 3-0 record and .950 save% in a stretch starting on March 29th he went out and laid an egg giving up seven goals to lowly Boston on just 23 shots. Time is running very short and the Hurricanes are looming.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Ville Koivunen – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Danton Heinen – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell

Connor Dewar – Kevin Hayes – Valtteri Puustinen

Joona Koppanen – Vasily Ponomarev – Emil Bemstrom

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Erik Karlsson / Conor Timmins

Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea

Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic

Potential Scratches: Vladislav Kolyachonok, Tommy Novak (lower body, out for season), Boko Imama (bicep surgery, out for season), Philip Tomasino (concussion), Blake Lizotte (out for season), Noel Acciari (out for season), Rutger McGroarty (foot, out for NHL season)

Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)

—With three more games to go on the season, the Pens are starting to limp towards the finish line a little bit. Their old war horse Noel Acciari will miss his first game of the season tonight and has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Nieto, McGroarty and Novak have also played their last NHL games for this year.

—After all these moves the Val/Vlad/Vil/Vas’s (Valtteri, Vladislav, Ville, Vasily) now outnumber the Con(n)ors (Timmins, Dewar) and Ryan’s on the NHL roster

Jarry’s shutouts

The Pens’ goalie is on a hot streak with two shutouts over his last four starts.

They come from different eras in the sport but it’s wild to think Jarry is on the verge of tying Tom Barrasso for career shutouts with the Penguins. One more and Jarry will be at half of Marc-Andre Fleury’s totals! Who would have guessed that off-hand?

Sid aims to join the legends

With three games to go on the season, Crosby could be right in the sweet spot with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux for some of the best age-37 seasons ever. Sid won’t get to Joe Sakic’s 100 but it’s impressive company to keep nonetheless.

From Pens PR:

Sidney Crosby is statistically having one of the best seasons in NHL history by a player in their age 37 season or older, as his 87 points are the sixth most in a single season in league history:

Most Points in Single Season at Age 37 or Older, NHL History

Player Age Year Points

Gordie Howe 40 1968-69 103Joe Sakic 37 2006-07 100Johnny Bucyk 37 1972-73 93Mario Lemieux 37 2002-03 91Wayne Gretzky 37 1997-98 90

Sidney Crosby 37 2024-25 87

Jean Ratelle 37 1977-78 84

Johnny Bucyk 40 1975-76 83