Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Winnipeg Jets 2/10/2024 – Ways, How to Watch

WHO: Pittsburgh Penguins (23-18-7, 53 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Winnipeg Airplanes (30-14-5, 65 points, 3rd place Central Division)

When: 7:00 PM ET

How to look: Sportsnet Pittsburgh, SportsNet World

Kalamger Road is ahead: The Penguins have a Valentine's Day home game against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday, then another back-to-back game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. After that, the pace of the schedule continues. The Pens have three games in each of the next two weeks, then four games a week for the next three weeks.

The path of the enemy: Two days after a 3-0 shutout by the Penguins, the Jets lost 4-1 to the Flyers and have now dropped five in a row (Three before the All-Star break, two since the team's return.) Fortunately for Winnipeg, almost everything. The team in the center also lost, leaving the Jets three points behind the division-leading Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche (with two games in hand). If only the penguins could say the same…

A view of the subway: Winning games can only do so much for the Penguins when every other Metropolitan Division team wins as well. Three of the four teams ranked above the Pens in the tournament (Islanders, Flyers and Rangers) won on Thursday. However, like the Jets, the Pens have several games against teams in the standings above them and have a chance to turn the standings around, but only if they win games.

Season Series: This is the last meeting between the Penguins and Jets this season. The Pens will try to sweep the two game series tonight.

Getting to know the Jets

Projected lines

forwards

Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Gabriel Villardi

Cole Perfetti – Sean Monahan – Nikolai Ehlers

Nino Niederreiter – Adam Lowry – Mason Appleton

Morgan Barron – Vladimir Namestnikov – Alex Iafallo

DEFENDERS

Josh Morrissey is Dylan DeMelo

Dylan Samberg is Neil Pionk

Logan Stanley is Nate Schmidt

Goalkeepers: Connor Hellebuyck, Laurent Brossut

Possible scratches: Rasmus Cupari, Dominic Toninato

Temporarily suspended: Brenden Dillon

IR: David Gustafsson

• The Penguins miss Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon, whose head check rattled Noel Acchari. Dillon was suspended for three games, costing him nearly $60,000 in salary. Instead, the 6-foot-7 Logan Stanley stands out as one of the tallest players on the ice.

Player statistics

(through hockeydb)

• It's been more than a month since Mark Scheifele, the Jets' leading point producer, last scored, so maybe he should. Due to injury and the All-Star break, Scheifele last found the back of the net on January 7th.
• It looks like the Penguins will see Hellebuye again tonight. On Thursday, Flyers second baseman Laurent Brossoit allowed four goals on 21 shots.

The Jets continue to struggle

The Jets were coming off a 4-1 loss to the Flyers on Thursday in which they allowed multiple penalties and three goals, but were outscored 13-4 in the first period.

Winnipeg tried to outscore the Flyers 25-8 in the final two frames, but couldn't recover. The Jets are now 0-4-1 in their last five games.

That's more losses than the Jets recorded in the entire stretch from Dec. 2 to Jan. 20, when they shot to the top of the Central with an 18-2-2 record.

It's not exactly the post-break revival the Jets were hoping for, the return of leading scorer Mark Scheifele from injury and the acquisition of Sean Monahan from the Montreal Canadiens.

And now to the penguins

Projected lines

forwards

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Brian Rust

Reilly Smith – Evgeni Malkin – Drew O'Connor

Rickard Rakell – Lars Eller – Jesse Puljujarvi

Jansen Harkins – Colin White – Jeff Carter

DEFENDERS

Marcus Petterson / Kris Letang

Ryan Graves / Erik Karlsson

PO Joseph / Chad Ruhwedel

Goalkeepers: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedelkovic

Possible scratch: Noel Acccari (concussion), John Ludwig

IR: Matt Nieto (from knee surgery until March)

• Jarry will take the cage after Nedelkovic started last night against the Wild. He comes into tonight with a perfect 5-0-0 record in five career starts with a .965 SV% and 0.98 GAA. Winnipeg is also one of four teams to have multiple shutouts against Jarry (the others are the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders and Washington Capitals).