Marc-Andre Fleury gets surprise start in net for Penguins

The Penguins (50-21-11, 111 points) are the No. 2 seed in the conference. They have yet to win a playoff series. They are also a very risky team and had a hot streak towards the end of the season. The playoffs are a marathon.

If the Pittsburgh Penguins want to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, our guys are going to have to come up big. The last time was in the 2014 opening round, when the Penguins defeated Columbus 4-2. “It was more a matter of where we finished and who we were playing, things like that”. A power play goal could change the entire momentum of the series at some point. They went 2-1-1 with a goal differential of +3 and a shot differential of +12 in all situations.

Hagelin and Kunitz are significant losses as well. It has been a tumultuous journey for Columbus to return to this very spot. A year ago in the Cup run, he had three goals and 12 assists in the playoffs and was plus-6 in almost 29 minutes per game. Stopping the other team from scoring, though, has been an issue. Playing on the third defensive pairing, you may not initially expect much from him, but expect him to be looking to step his game up.

Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby led the National Hockey League with 44 goals during the regular season.

The penguins just allowed 40+ shots against the New Jersey devils. What ever happens, good, or bad, needs to be kept in perspective. That’s because they were one of the hottest teams in the league over their first 36 games, in which they were 27-5-4 with a near-historic 16-game winning streak from November 29 through January 3.

Fleury spent most of the season gracefully receding into the background while Murray took over as the No. 1 goalie after helping lead the Penguins to a championship last spring.

Bjorkstrand scored the Cup-clinching goal for the Monsters with 1.9 seconds left in overtime against the Bears last June 11. Matt Murray was 2-1-1 with a 3.16 goals-against average and.909 save percentage vs. Columbus. Young forwards and inexperienced defensemen are in the lineup due to all the absent bodies.

“The potential we have is there”, defenseman Olli Maatta said.

Another underlining reason the Penguins have yielded more goals overall is because the penalty kill has struggled. In 2016-17, they fell to 20th at 79.8 percent.

Forward Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League has been selected as the top eligible skater for the 2017 NHL draft by the Central Scouting Bureau.

“Everybody was writing articles about how repeating hasn’t been done at the start of the season”, Sullivan explained. I think it’s been important since the beginning of the year. Killing off just eight of 13 during that stretch. There is a reason the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to get because anything does and will happen in the National Hockey League playoffs. The Penguins and Blue Jackets finished second and third, respectively, in the Metropolitan Division, setting up a battle that kicks off at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

“That Pittsburgh-Columbus series to me is going to be one of those where it’s going to go a long while and if it’s six games, then it’s going to feel like eight and a half or nine games”, Olczyk said.

“When you win the year before, everybody kind of measures themselves against you and gets up for your team the following year”, Crosby said in a one-on-one interview last month.