Penguins, Blackhawks Look To Climb Out Of Slumps
It may not have the pomp of their outdoor matchup earlier this month, but Chicago’s game against Pittsburgh on Sunday has plenty riding on it.
Considered the league’s top teams for much of the season, both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks are feeling the strain of an 82-game schedule as we draw into the final two weeks of the campaign.
The two sides meet in Pittsburgh Sunday night, each looking to break out of a slump and garner some momentum ahead of the playoffs.
Opening faceoff at Consol Energy Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Pittsburgh (47-22-5, 99pts) enters Sunday’s game assured of a playoff berth, but any hopes of entering postseason play with the No. 1 seed have been steadily slipping away as the team has struggled to a 7-7-2 record since the Olympic break.
The Penguins currently sit nine points back of the Boston Bruins, who have emerged as the bookmakers’ favorite to win the Eastern Conference, an accolade that sat on the broad shoulders of the Penguins for much of the season.
Head coach Dan Bylsma may not lose too much sleep over finishing second to the Bruins, but he will expend almost unlimited amounts of energy trying to help his team find form again. A 3-5-1 record over the last nine is not good enough for a team that is preparing a deep run at the Stanley Cup, and the sixth year coach has just eight games to turn things around.
That begins with Sunday’s home game against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Chicago (42-18-15, 99pts) knows all too well what it’s like to lose momentum down the stretch. The Blackhawks are just 7-7-1 since the Olympic break, and have experienced a mini-freefall of sorts.
Joel Quenneville’s side has been considered the Western Conference’s top dog for much of the year, but poor recent form has seen four teams – the St. Louis Blues, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, and Colorado Avalanche – leapfrog the Blackhawks in the Western Conference standings. If the playoffs were to begin today, Chicago wouldn’t even have home ice advantage in the first round, something that was unthinkable just a month or so ago.
Sunday night’s tilt in Pittsburgh marks the final leg of a three-game road trip for the Blackhawks that began with a loss in Boston on Thursday and continued with Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Quenneville will hope to at least go home with two points.
Pittsburgh meanwhile ended a three-game losing skid on Friday with a 2-1 road win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Penguins will now look to hand Chicago its first three-game regulation losing streak since February 2012.
They’ll have to do so without Evgeni Malkin (23 goals, 49 assist, 72pts), who will miss a fourth game on the bounce thanks to a foot injury. Kris Letang (illness) and Pascal Dupuis (knee) are amongst Pittsburgh’s walking wounded that are unlikely to appear in the game.
Chicago will once more be without Patrick Kane (29 goals, 40 assists, 69pts), who has missed five straight with a lower body injury.
The Penguins and Blackhawks met back on March 1, with the Blackhawks earning a 5-1 victory in the great outdoors of Soldier Field. The Penguins feel that game was not indicative of their talents, and will look for revenge when the two sides meet in the Steel City.
Marc-Andre Fleury (35-17-4, 2.35 GAA, .917 SV%) will likely slot in between the posts for the Penguins on Sunday. He was in net in Friday’s win in Columbus, snapping his own five-game losing streak in the process.
Chicago will counter with Corey Crawford (29-14-10, 2.22 GAA, .918 SV%), who has gone 7-5 since the Olympic break and has lost two of his last three. Both he and Fleury were in goal when these two met at Soldier Field.
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Pittsburgh Penguins odds for 03/30/2014
Pittsburgh (-116) opened as the favorite over Chicago (+105) when the moneyline for this one was released.
The Penguins are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games against the Blackhawks, and 5-1-0 in the last six head-to-head matchups played at Consol Energy Arena.
The spread (1.5) is expected to go under in a close encounter between potential Stanley Cup opponents.
The total (5.5) is favored to go under. Both sides are amongst the NHL’s best both offensively and defensively, but have each struggled finding the net recently.
The over hasn’t paid out in Pittsburgh’s last four games. The under has paid out in nine of Chicago’s last 11. That being said, the score has gone over in eight of Chicago’s last 12 visits to Pittsburgh.
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