Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins (7-4-0) travel down to North Carolina for a battle with the Hurricanes (4-4-3) live from PNC Arena in Raleigh. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can tune into WXDX-FM 105.9 to listen to the game while Carolina fans can hear all the action on 99.9 The Fan.
These two Metropolitan Division rivals square off for the second of four times this season and both are struggling coming in atop the division. The Penguins hold the division lead over the Hurricanes by three points and are on a three-game losing skid while Carolina is coming off of a four-game road split that saw it lose the last two games. Pittsburgh won the first meeting between these teams 5-2.
The usually offensively gifted Penguins have scored just four goals in their last three games--all losses and the team went just 1-for-15 on the power play in its last three losses at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs.
"We definitely look forward to the opportunity [for a turnaround] again," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said per NHL.com. "The three games, while a little bit different, have a similar theme to them, we carry the play, outshoot."
The banged-up Hurricanes, meanwhile, enter play having lost two in a row while giving up two goals in the first period in back-to-back games against the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche.
"As a group, consistently, we just have to be smarter with some of the decisions we're making, especially in the first period," Hurricanes captain Eric Staal said. "It's just about being smarter in our game and not beating ourselves in certain positions on the ice. If we do that, we'll be fine."
Two of Carolina's injuries include goaltender Cam Ward (2-2-3, 2.81 goals-against average, .912 save percentage) who is sidelined three-to-four weeks, and leading scorer Jeff Skinner (3-6-9) who is questionable for Monday's game. Carolina will likely go with Justin Peters in net, who is 0-2-0 with a 3.16 GAA and an .891 save percentage.
Pittsburgh counters in the crease with Marc-Andre Fleury, who has posted a 7-2-0 record to go along with a 1.88 GAA and a .926 save percentage while not getting any help on the score sheet in the past few games.
Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points with 18 off of eight goals and ten assists and will look to help the Pens get their scoring touch back after they've been stymied the last few games. Chris Kunitz follows with 11 points while lighting the lamp four times and adding seven assists, while Evgeni Malkin has 10 points with three tallies and seven helpers.
While Carolina could be without its main scorer in Skinner, Staal boasts the second-most points on the team with eight points off of three goals and five assists, and the Hurricanes captain will look to right the ship for his team tonight.
The Penguins look to put an end to their losing streak and attempt to find their scoring touch while the Hurricanes will hope to snap a two-game losing streak and find ways to win with a banged-up lineup when these two teams hit the ice tonight in Carolina.
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