Game Thread: Pittsburgh Penguins (17-17-6, 40 pts) at Carolina Hurricanes (23-14-2, 48 pts) - Jan 5, 2025 - 6:00 PM EST

Well, the Penguins are probably wishing they practiced shootouts a little more, but they continue to remain right at .500 by prying a point from the Panthers. Not at all a bad result against the defending champs, of course, and they battled hard to get it. Now, the question becomes whether they can keep that intensity heading into Raleigh, a city famously unkind to our favorite flightless birds. If you had a time machine, you'd have to go all the way back to 2018 to catch our last win there! (While you're there, maybe take a side trip and visit Ron Hextall, who had just been fired as the Flyers GM about a month prior. Butterfly effect be damned; I think we'd all really appreciate it if you convinced him that retirement might be nice.)

As for the Hurricanes, they'll be on the second half of a back-to-back, having just been shut out by the Wild (although, sadly, not by our old friend Fleury). Not that that means much; our other old friend, Jordan Staal, remains one of the great defensive forwards in the league, and his team plays a stifling brand of hockey that the Pens often find tough to crack. Will tonight be the night they finally break through? I'm sure if you asked DOC, he'd probably hope it's a "score two goals" kind of game, and not a "get sucker punched in the head" one. (Sam Bennett did get fined $5k by the league for the incident, which, surely, will make him see the error of his ways and stop being such a scumbag. Surely.)

On the injury front, Tomasino is out, but Letang was a full participant at practice. It's not a guarantee that he'll play, but his return would certainly be welcomed right about now. As always, LGP.

Projected Lineup:

Rakell - Crosby - Rust
Bunting - Malkin - Glass
O'Connor - Hayes - Beauvillier
Nieto - Lizotte - Acciari

Pickering - Letang
Grzelcyk - Karlsson
Pettersson - Joseph