The Penguins are looking for their first winning streak in nearly a month, but to get it Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, they’ll have to defeat the first-ranked Carolina Hurricanes.
Pittsburgh came out of the holiday break to record a 7-3 road victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, spurred by a four-goal explosion in the first period. Justin Brazeau scored the first hat trick of his career while Bryan Rust scored twice for the Penguins, who entered the break having lost nine of their last 10 games (1-5-4).
Defenseman Erik Karlsson did not practice with the team on Monday. This comes after the three-time Norris Trophy winner, who leads the Penguins with 23 assists this season, played just 15:49 in 16 appearances in Sunday’s win. The 35-year-old veteran, who has a team average of 23:55 on ice for skaters, did not play in the final nine minutes with the game well in hand.
Penguins coach Dan Muse told reporters after Monday’s practice that the move was a precautionary measure for Karlsson, who has the 15th-longest active streak in games played in the NHL with 283. However, he has just one point, an assist, in his last five games.
“I’m just managing the minutes,” Muse said. “A guy who plays a lot of minutes. So, there are several factors in that.”
Keeping Karlsson fresh will be key to the Penguins getting back into the Eastern Conference playoff race. They currently sit seventh in the eight-team Metropolitan Division, 10 points behind the Hurricanes. The same approach can be applied to Pittsburgh’s other top players, as the Penguins’ top six points scorers are all 31 or older.
Sidney Crosby, 38, continues to lead the Penguins with 20 goals and 39 points.
After losing three games in a row before Christmas (0-2-1), Carolina won two in a row coming out of the break, which helped coach Rod Brind’Amour’s team create space at the top of the division. With 51 points, the Hurricanes hold a five-point lead over the second-place New York Islanders.
Carolina rallied for a 3-2 overtime victory against the visiting New York Rangers on Monday. Jackson Blake got the game-winning goal on a power play, deflecting Sebastian Aho’s shot under Igor Shesterkin.
The Hurricanes suffered several injuries. Seth Jarvis, who leads the team with 19 goals and is tied with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere for second with 29 points, is dealing with an upper-body injury week to week. Gostisbehere, who leads the team with 25 assists, was scratched Monday with a groin ailment.
Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who has played in just five games this season, was placed on injured reserve last week with an upper-body injury.
Earlier Monday, the team announced that backup goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, who was expected to start against the Rangers, would likely miss the remainder of the season after electing to have surgery on a lower-body injury that has bothered him since the end of the preseason.
With Gostisbehere unavailable, Brind’Amour opted to deploy four forwards for the winning 4-on-3 power play in overtime.
Aho, who leads the team with 35 points, said after the victory that maintaining confidence had been the key to keeping the team at the top of the table in recent seasons.
“Just keep working and being hard,” he said. “You can’t really tell if we’re up or down, we just keep moving forward.”
–Field level media
