Voltar
The puck drops just after 9 p.m. EST.
The Penguins slide and turmoil makes them solid underdogs Saturday. The FanDuel line has the Penguins at +100 and LA at -120. In fact, the researchers have several picks for the Penguins game.
The Penguins had moments of competitiveness but were otherwise pummeled by the Boston Bruins Thursday, 6-2. Justin Brazeau scored his first goal of the season, and the Penguins controlled play for a lengthy portion of the second period but were once again undone by mistakes.
Boston’s Pavel Zacha finished a breakaway and a two-on-one, both fueled by errant Penguins puck management. Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 18 of 24, but all but one of the goals were off of odd-man rushes.
The Penguins might get a little help Saturday as LA’s penalty killing is ranked dead last in the league, killing just 63%.
LA is fresh from a 7-2 drubbing of the San Jose Sharks Wednesday. Adrian Kempe returned from an illness absence and netted a hat trick, while Quinton Byfield scored twice on the power play. Erik Haula and Joel Armia also scored for LA.
LA was 3-for-5 on the power play, and goalie Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves.
Silovs is expected in goal, but with back-to-backs in LA and Anaheim this weekend, both Silovs and rookie Sergei Murashov are likely to start. Coach Dan Muse will announce his starter after the morning skate at 1:30 p.m. EST.
The Penguins will have a full morning skate, which means there could also be line changes. PHN will update the story as needed.
TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
Radio: 105.9 The X
Tommy Novak–Sidney Crosby–Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov–Ben Kindel–Evgeni Malkin
Ville Koivunen–Hendrix Lapierre–Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar–Blake Lizotte–Nick Robertson
Samuel Girard–Erik Karlsson
Spencer Stastney–Kaedan Korczak
Declan Carlile–Kris Letang
Artemi Panarin–Alex Laferriere–Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore–Quinton Byfield–Corey Perry
Andre Lee–Scott Laughton–Martin Chromiak
Erik Haula–Kenny Connors–Joel Armia
Erik Gustafsson–Brandt Clarke
Joel Edmundson–Drew Doughty
Mikey Anderson–Brian Dumoulin
Penguins power play: 17.8% (24th). Penguins penalty kill: 82.5% (10th).
Kings power play: 22.0% (14th). Kings penalty kill: 63.0% (32nd).
The Penguins have won three of their last four games against LA (3-1-0). The Penguins have won three in a row at Crypto.com.
The Penguins and LA both came into the NHL in 1967, but the Penguins have never won four in a row in LA.
The Penguins begin their third set of back-to-back games. Thus far, they are 1-2-1 in back-to-backs (0-1-1 on the first night and 1-1-0 on the second night).
Nick Robertson scored his seventh goal of the season on Thursday night against Boston. Among all players with zero assists this year, no one has more goals than Robertson’s seven (Conor Geekie, 4G-0A).
Hendrix Lapierre has recorded seven points through 12 games played this season, marking the fastest he’s reached seven points to start a season in his career (previously: 2024-25 & 2023-24, 7 PTS in 25 GP).
Sidney Crosby is one point from surpassing long-time LA Kings star Marcel Dionne for sixth place on the all-time scoring list.