The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Washington Capitals tonight at PPG Paints Arena. Face-off is 7pm. WISR pre-game is 6:30pm. The Pens have won all three games they have played against Washington so far this season.
Goaltender Casey DeSmith was scratched from Sunday’s game with the Caps due to a non-Covid illness. Maxime Lagace was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to back-up Tristan Jarry. DeSmith had started three of the Penguins past four games prior to the weekend.
According to a report in the Sports Business Journal – the Penguins have the best television ratings in the NHL. The nine Penguins games carried so far this season by AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh through February 9th, the Pens have had a 7.8 rating – which represents a 50% increase over last season. The Pens have either been #1 or #2 in local television ratings for the past decade.
Penguins winger Bryan Rust has been named the NHL’s third star of the week. He had three goals and two assists in two Pens victories over the past week that spanned February 8th through this past Sunday. Rust had an assist on Evgeni Malkin’s game-tying goal in their shoot-out win over the New York Islanders. He had two goals against Washington Sunday.
The NHL’s second star of the week was former Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury after he had a 1.51 goal-against average in four games. One of those games was a shutout for the West Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.