The Pittsburgh Penguins will put their three game winning streak on the line when they take on Colorado later tonight. Colorado has not lost yet this season. They have started the year with five consecutive wins. The Avalanche are one of, if not the, youngest team in the league and they have some exciting talent. They have a chance to be really good this year and this will be a tough task for the Penguins.

Pittsburgh did a great job banking points the last three games so no matter what happens tonight they are still in decent shape overall for the season. Heading into this game on a three game winless streat would have been problematic.

As for the matchup look for Mike Sullivan to use the Crosby line up against Nate MacKinnon. Both lines are very good, but I think some would be surprised how favorable the Penguins line with Dominik Simon is to one of the very best lines from last year in the NHL. Here is a snapshot of the 2018-19 seasons for both lines



First, the Penguins line only has a fourth of the sample as the Colorado power trio. It is probable the Penguins numbers would decline with a larger sample. The highest xGF% of a line who played 800 minutes together last year was 56.04 and it was the Vegas line of Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith. I do think the Penguins line compares more favorably to the MacKinnon line than most lines in the league, but there are some different factors at play this season. Gone is Tyson Barrie who moved on to Toronto and in is stud prospect Cale Makar. He should be a star in the league for many years to come and it will be fun to see him in action this evening. I look forward to the Crosby vs. MacKinnon matchup.

Colorado has Nazem Kadri centering their second line with other newcomers Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky. Right now that is a lot better than what the Penguins have. Pittsburgh’s second line with Kahun-McCann-Hornqvist has been struggling.

I don’t think the Penguins can use the Marino-Gudbranson pairing if they want to survive this evening. At least they can’t have Gudbranson trying to play on the left side. That isn’t going to work. Marino is the better skater and has better puck skills. NHL games played is irrelevant when one player has a different skill set than another. If the Penguins are going to use that pair they need to put Marino on the left side. With Jared McCann being a game-time decision we may be looking at a situation where we see seven defenseman again anyways.

This is the toughest test of the young season and the Penguins are well below their optimal lineup. Any standings points would be awesome and if they get a goose egg it really isn’t something to lose sleep over.

Thanks for reading!

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