Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Calgary Flames 3/2/2024 - Lines, how to watch

The Penguins head into Game 3 of a four-game West Coast road trip.

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (27-22-8, 62 points, 6th place Metropolitan Division) @ Calgary Flames (29-25-5, 63 points, 5th place Pacific Division)

When: 10 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Sportsnet Pittsburgh in PA and regular old Sportsnet in Canada, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: As the old saying goes, there's no rest for those in desperate pursuit of a Wild Card spot. The Pens are back in action tomorrow night against the Edmonton Oilers for their third game in four days.

Opponent Track: The Flames are looking to reach a season-high five-game win streak after collecting Ws against the Winnipeg Jets, Boston Bruin, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings over the past 11 days.

Season Series: The Penguins exploded with four even-strength goals in the third period on October 14 to open the season series with a 5-2 win.

Getting to know the Flames

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Andrew Mangiapane / Mikael Backlund / Blake Coleman

Connor Zary / Nazem Kadri / Martin Pospisil

Jonathan Huberdeau / Yegor Sharangovich / Dryden Hunt

Andrei Kuzmenko / Kevin Rooney / Walker Duehr

DEFENSEMEN

MacKenzie Weegar / Rasmus Andersson

Noah Hanifin / Brayden Pachal

Oliver Kylington / Jordan Oesterle

Goalies: Jacob Markström, Daniel Vladar

Possible scratches: Jakob Pelletier, Dennis Gilbert

IR: AJ Greer

Non-roster: Dillon Dube

• The Flames are missing a top-four defenseman after dealing Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars Thursday.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

• The Tanev trade could be the first step in a series of deadline trades by the Flames, who are also rumored to be listening to offers on Hanifin (whose deal is expiring) and Markström. From Daniel Austin of the Calgary Herald:

We’re not going to sit here and pretend this trade doesn’t make the Flames a worse team. It does. You don’t just replace a gutsy, tough-as-nails defenceman like Chris Tanev. He’s a big loss.

And we’ll get to Noah Hanifin in a second, but assuming Conroy deals him away in the next eight days, the Flames will have lost two of their top four defencemen.

• There’s some tension between Markström and his team thanks to rumors that they asked him to waive his no-move clause for a deal with the Devils. As the starting goaltender recently said to Eric Francis of Sportsnet:

“Everyone in here, every player in here, everything that’s been going on and not going on, and how everyone in this room has handled everything. … I think it’s been really good. And then the whole situation and everything — am I happy about that? No, I’m not. I think it could have been handled a lot different from up top.”

• More from Francis on the quote from Markström, who has a NMC and two years remaining on his contract:

Players who want to be part of a team don’t often take public shots at their GM, especially when they have two more years left on their deal. This was a message to Conroy following all the very public trade speculation.

• To sum it up, although things have been going well for the Flames, and they have hope of snagging a wild-card spot, the Tanev trade and Hanifin/Markström uncertainty leaves them in a strange place heading into the trade deadline.

And now for the Penguins

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Reilly Smith- Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor - Evgeni Malkin - Valtteri Puustinen

Emil Bemstrom - Lars Eller - Jesse Puljujarvi

Jansen Harkins - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

DEFENSEMEN

P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Chad Ruhwedel

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic

Potential Scratches: Matthew Phillips, John Ludvig, Bryan Rust (upper-body injury)

IR: Matt Nieto (out from knee surgery until March), Jake Guentzel

• No major line changes at practice Friday.

• It’s time for Malkin to score:

• Milestone watch: Reilly Smith is two points away from 500 career points.
• Milestone watch, part two: Sidney Crosby is one goal away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s 583 goals for the Edmonton Oilers as the seventh-most goals for a single franchise in NHL history.
• Streak watch: Tristan Jarry has yet to lose to the Calgary Flames in regulation. He’s 4-0-2 with a 1.59 GAA and .951 save percentage in six career games heading into tonight.
• It’s a homecoming for potential scratch Matthew Phillips, who was selected by the Flames in the sixth round of the 2016 draft.