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WGD: Game 81: Red Wings vs. Penguins

Apr 4, 2019, 12:40 EDT

The red hot Red Wings take their winning streak to Pittsburgh tonight where they can once again prevent the Penguins from clinching a berth in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In their last meeting on Tuesday, the Red Wings top line exploded offensively to down the Penguins 6-3. If the Pens beat the Red Wings in any fashion, they’ll clinch a playoff spot. If they lose again and Montreal/Carolina both lose, they’ll clinch a playoff spot. Montreal’s got a tough game ahead of them, but I would love it if the Red Wings finished their season off by preventing the Penguins from securing a playoff spot.

The Wings are currently on a seven game win streak and have only lost one game in their last ten.

THE RED WINGS

LW	C	RW
TYLER BERTUZZI Rating: 76.9#26 LW	DYLAN LARKIN Rating: 80.2#17 C	ANTHONY MANTHA Rating: 78.6#19 RW
DARREN HELM Rating: 70.4#148 LW	ANDREAS ATHANASIOU Rating: 77.9#29 C	TARO HIROSE
RYAN KUFFNER	CHRISTOFFER EHN Rating: 69.6#168 C	MARTIN FRK Rating: 69.6#125 RW
MATT PUEMPEL Rating: 71.2#106 LW	DOMINIC TURGEON Rating: 72.9#84 C	LUKE WITKOWSKI Rating: 67.5#134 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
NIKLAS KRONWALL Rating: 71.8#89 LD	FILIP HRONEK Rating: 72.7#59 RD
JOE HICKETTS Rating: 73.0#62 LD	MADISON BOWEY Rating: 69.6#99 RD
DYLAN MCILRATH Rating: 72.9#63 LD	JAKE CHELIOS Rating: 73.3#50 RD

The Wings’ success has largely been due to the performance of their top line, but their roster is full of young talent right now. The bottom-6 are largely AHL players, but they’ve proven that they can shut down opposing teams’ bottom-6, which is actually quite impressive.

As for the top-6, Larkin, Mantha, and Bertuzzi have combined for 38 points in their last six games. They are leading the league in points. But they are also getting secondary production from Athanasiou and Hirose, both of whom have looked amazing game in and game out.

On the blue line, Hronek continues to impress, but he’s not as impressive as Kronwall who is the last man standing among the veteran D-men on the team.

THE PENGUINS

LW	C	RW
JARED MCCANN Rating: 74.0#49 LW	SIDNEY CROSBY Rating: 85.4#4 C	JAKE GUENTZEL Rating: 79.1#12 RW
BRYAN RUST Rating: 76.1#32 LW	EVGENI MALKIN Rating: 82.0#11 C	PHIL KESSEL Rating: 76.8#27 RW
DOMINIK SIMON Rating: 71.2#104 LW	NICK BJUGSTAD Rating: 74.1#60 C	PATRIC HORNQVIST Rating: 75.7#35 RW
TEDDY BLUEGER	MATT CULLEN Rating: 71.1#130 C	GARRETT WILSON Rating: 71.8#88 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
JACK JOHNSON Rating: 70.5#118 LD	JUSTIN SCHULTZ Rating: 76.3#25 RD
OLLI MAATTA Rating: 72.2#79 LD	ZACH TROTMAN Rating: 73.1#54 RD
MARCUS PETTERSSON Rating: 72.6#69 LD	ERIK GUDBRANSON Rating: 70.0#96 RD

This Pens team is definitely built for the playoffs, they just need to get there. The Wings did a good job of shutting down Crosby and Malkin for the most part on Tuesday and they’ll need to do that again tonight if they want to extend their win streak.

They also need to watch out for that pesky Phil Kessel who burned them on a 2-on-1 last game in the first period. Their blue line is easily their weak point, but Gudbranson has a solid performance on Tuesday. I’d expect more from him tonight.

BETWEEN THE PIPES

Jimmy Howard vs. Matt Murray

Howard played a great game on Tuesday so, having had a day of rest in between, I don’t see why he wouldn’t start again tonight.

As for the Pens, they’ll need more from Murray who got burned a few times by Mantha and Bertuzzi last game. He just didn’t look that good. It’s not a good omen as they head into the playoffs.