Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins (10-3-1, 21 points) and Toronto Maple Leafs (9-5-2, 20 points) face-off live from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto for the second of three meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the action on 105.9 WXDX while Toronto fans can do the same on TSN 1050.
Pittsburgh is coming off of a rare loss that snapped a seven-game winning streak while Toronto has won three straight matches and will look to make it four tonight. The Penguins topped the Maple Leafs in the first meeting of the season between these clubs on Oct. 11 with a 5-2 triumph.
The Penguins have only lost three times in regulation this season, but their latest defeat was one of the worst as the team fell to the New York Rangers 5-0 on the road Tuesday.
In the wake of the team's first loss since Oct. 23, coach Mike Johnston has opted to shuffle up his lines a little bit.
"That's what makes this team so good; we have Sid [captain Sidney Crosby] and Geno [Evgeni Malkin] who are two of the top players in the world," Patric Hornqvist told NHL.com about the team's ability to shuffle the lineup. "They make everybody around them so much better."
Crosby leads the NHL with 17 assists and 24 points thus far this season. Hornqvist is second on the team with 18 points off of nine goals and nine assists while Malkin has six tallies and 11 helpers to rank third on the team with 17 points.
The Maple Leafs have been firing on all cylinders lately and are coming in off of a 6-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday that saw Phil Kessel notch two goals.
Kessel leads the team in goals (10) and points (21), which ranks him third in the league in both categories. Tyler Bozak is second on the team with 15 points off of six markers and nine helpers and James van Riemsdyk has found the twine seven times and added seven assists to rank third with 14 points.
Another solid player for the Maple Leafs thus far has been Toronto native Peter Holland, 23, who has three tallies in the last three matches and four goals and eight points thus far this season.
"The biggest thing about those three games is that we are starting to get the wins," Holland said per NHL.com. "At the end of the day it's the two points that you want to get, but any time you can get on the score sheet it obviously feels good."
In net, Toronto is slated to turn to Jonathan Bernier, who is 5-3-2 this season with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage.
Backup netminder Thomas Greiss is slated to suit up in the crease for Pittsburgh and he is 1-0-1 in two starts while yielding five goals on 65 shots.
The Penguins look to regroup from just their fourth loss of the season while the Maple Leafs aim for their fourth straight win when the puck drops tonight at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
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