Tonight at 7 PM, the Penguins take on the Vegas Golden Knights at home. Despite all of the injuries to their key players, the Pens are sitting at the top of the Atlantic Division with a record of 6-2-0.
The Golden Knights are off to a decent start as well with a record of 5-3-0. It is worth noting for Pens fans that Vegas will be starting Marc-André Fleury in net this evening. It is always a pleasure for him to come back and play on his old home ice. He will be looking for his first win in Pittsburgh since he left the Penguins through the expansion draft in 2017 after winning his third Stanley Cup.
Staying on the topic of netminders, the Penguins will be starting with backup Tritan Jarry. The line combinations will be staying relatively intact for Pittsburgh as far as the rest of team goes.
Here is the projected lineup for the Penguins this evening according to NHL.com correspondent Wes Crosby:
Forwards:
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Dominik Simon
Dominik Kahun - Jared McCann - Patric Hornqvist
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brandon Tanev
Adam Johnson - Joseph Blandisi - Sam Lafferty
Defensemen:
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Justin Schultz
Erik Gudbranson - John Marino
Goaltenders:
Tristan Jarry
Matt Murray
Defensemen Chad Ruhwedel, Juuso Riikola and Jack Johnson are healthy scratches for tonight's game. Evgeni Malkin, Alex Galchenyuk, Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust and Zach Trotman are all out with injuries.
The Vegas lineup will feature two very strong offensive lines composed or Marchessault, Karlsson, Smith, Pacioretty, Stastny and Stone. The latter leads his team in points with 11 including 5 goals in 8 games.
This should be a very interesting matchup between to great offensive-minded hockey teams.