Avalanche at Penguins
Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin is an elite offensive player, but his leadership skills can also be special as the Penguins continue their four-game homestand versus Western Conference teams by hosting the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. Malkin told reporters the team needs to “stop, look in the mirror and start working” after a 4-0 loss to New Jersey on Saturday and the Russian backed up his words with two goals and two assists in Pittsburgh's 4-3 victory over Minnesota on Thursday.
“'Geno’ was one of the guys who made comments the other night, and some people were taken aback when a player says our guys were arguing or debating, but that’s natural with a team,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston told reporters. “I was impressed with Geno and his emotion after the game to make comments like that.” The performance helped halt a 1-3-0 stretch for Pittsburgh, which is 27th in the NHL in goals scoring despite also having Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel on the payroll. Colorado began a season-long seven-game road trip with three consecutive victories before losing 5-1 in Toronto on Tuesday as the Maple Leafs scored four power-play goals and a short-handed tally. Captain Gabriel Landeskog returns Thursday after serving a two-game suspension for his hit to the head of Boston's Brad Marchand on Nov. 12 and rejoins a line with Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon that was put together at the start of the trip.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), ROOT (Pittsburgh)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (7-10-1): Duchene has four goals and five assists while recording at least one point in each game of the road trip while MacKinnon has two goals and three assists during that span. Reto Berra (4-4-0), who is second in the NHL in goals-against average (1.83) and save percentage (.942), is expected to make his sixth consecutive start as Semyon Varlamov (groin) practiced Tuesday for the first time in a week. Third-line center John Mitchell (five goals) returned to the injured list with an oblique injury - he played in the last two games, scoring once, after missing the previous four.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (11-7-0): Malkin (team-best 16 points) shares the team lead in goals (six) with Kessel, but captain Crosby (two goals, nine points, minus-8) continues his slow start and is pointless in his last three games. Pittsburgh is without defenseman Olli Maatta, who was hospitalized with what the Penguins are calling an upper-body injury after being cross-checked into an open door leading to the Pittsburgh bench by Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter on Tuesday. According to TSN, Maatta did not suffer internal injuries, but had muscle and soft tissue damage to his midsection.
OVERTIME
1. Penguins D Kris Letang (nine assists) and D Ian Cole are each a team-worst minus-11.
2. Colorado has won its last six games after permitting five or more goals in its previous contest.
3. Pittsburgh won six of the last eight meetings dating to 2009-10 after the teams split two meetings last season with each winning on their home ice.