Game 47 Preview: New Jersey Devils @ Pittsburgh Penguins 4/22/2021: lines, how to watch

Who: New Jersey Devils (14-26-6, 34 points, 7th place in the Eastern Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (29-14-3, 61 points, 3rd place in the Eastern Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. eastern

How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, MSG-B in New York/New Jersey

Opponent Track: It’s now a seven game losing streak for New Jersey, who are just limping to the finish line of this season. Remember how bad Buffalo was and everyone clowning on them for being like the worst team ever? The Devils are only three points ahead of the Sabres in the standings, and no guarantee to stay ahead of them at this rate.

Pens path ahead: Five straight games of home cookin’ for the Pens. New Jersey is in town for two more games tonight and Saturday. And then the Bruins coming to the ‘Burgh after that for games Sunday (4/25) and next Tuesday (4/27).

Season Series: It’s a 4-1-1 season series for Pittsburgh so far against Jersey (2-4-0 from their perspective). NJ took Round one on March 18th, 3-2 in New Jersey. The Pens returned the favor with a 3-1 win on 3/20, but the Devils won 2-1 in OT in Pittsburgh on 3/21. Pittsburgh won 6-4 on 4/9 and 5-2 on 4/1. The Pens held on for a wild 7-6 win on Tuesday. The games this week are the final PIT/NJD games of the season.

Recent History: Pittsburgh is 7-2-1 in its last ten games against New Jersey dating back to Feburary 19, 2019 and 4-0-1 against NJ in the last five games.

SBN Team Counterpart: Check out All About the Jersey for the latest news to know about the Devils.

Player Stats at a Glance

via hockeydb:

—Sharangovich has a three game point streak with five points (2G+3A) in that stretch.

—Andreas Johnsson broke a 31 game goal-less streak on Tuesday. There was a bit of consternation last off-season considering the low trade price New Jersey paid for him, compared to what Pittsburgh gave the same Toronto team for Kasperi Kapanen, but this season has shown just why these players were valued quite differently.

Possible Lines

FORWARDS

Janne Kuokkonen - Jack Hughes - Yegor Sharangovich

Andreas Johansson - Nico Hischier - Marian Studenic

Miles Wood - Michael McLeod - Nate Bastian

Nolan Foote - Mikhail Maltsev - Nick Merkley

DEFENSEMEN

Ryan Murray / Matt Tennyson

Jonas Siegenthaler / Damon Severson

Will Butcher / Connor Carrick

Possible Starting goalie: ?

Scratches: Pavel Zacha (injured), Jesper Bratt (injured), Jesper Boqvist, P.K. Subban (COVID protocol), Ty Smith, Mackenzie Blackwood (injured)

—The Devils took a day off yesterday and provided no updates on quite the MASH unit that they have going now. It could be possible that players like Zacha and Bratt are back for tonight’s game.

And now for the Pens..

Tuesday’s game lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Jared McCann - Jeff Carter - Jason Zucker

Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Evan Rodrigues

Colton Sceviour - Mark Jankowski - Sam Lafferty

Defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Mike Matheson / Cody Ceci

Marcus Pettersson / John Marino

Possible starting goalie: Tristan Jarry

Scratches: Radim Zohorna, Chad Ruhwedel, Mark Friedman, Frederick Gaudreau (injured)

IR: Evgeni Malkin, Kasperi Kapanen, Brandon Tanev

Taxi Squad: Juuso Riikola, Yannick Weber, Emil Larmi, Anthony Angello, Maxime Lagace

—Kapanen took part in yesterday’s practice, we’ll see how long it takes for him to get back into the lineup but it’s looking sooner than later at this point.

—Tonight will be career game number 500 for Jason Zucker.

—Guentzel and Rust have just been destroying the Devils as of late. Rust has points in his last eight games against NJ, and not just a few, he’s got 5G+7A in those eight games. Guentzel has points in his last seven matchups against the Devils, notching 6G+6A.

—Kris Letang will be looking to stay red hot offensively too. Letang has 14 points (2G+12A) in his last 14 games, including five multi-point games in this stretch.

Sullivan puts the pieces together

You could understand if it took some time for Mike Sullivan to process just what he saw in the third period of Tuesday night’s game. The Pens gave up six goals in the last 20 minutes. They still won in regulation.