• Who: Penguins (14-9-9) vs. Senators (15-13-4)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 33
• When: 7:10 p.m.
• Where: Canadian Tire Centre
• Goaltenders: Arturs Silovs (4-4-6, .893 SV%) vs. Linus Ullmark (12-8-4, .879 SV%)
• TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
• Stream: SNP360 (local), ESPN+ (out-of-market)
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Senators
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Final. On to Montreal.
• Penguins to the PK with 53.4 left. Anthony Mantha.
• Two minutes left. Starting to think the Penguins aren’t coming back in this one.
• GOAL: Brady Tkachuk hits the empty net. Senators 4, Penguins 0
• Just over six minutes left. Penguins pull the goaltender down three.
• Erik Karlsson got tripped. No call.
• I didn’t disappear, by the way. It’s just that nothing is happening.
• Third period is underway.
• Grabbed this from the no-goal video. Puck in the back of the net. Rickard Rakell in the white. Not even his stick touching Linus Ullmark. What am I missing?
SPORTNET PITTSBURGH
• Penguins kill the penalty.
• Penguins go on the PK for the failed challenge, by the way. Insane.
• No goal. Goaltender interference. Dude. What? Kyle Dubas is apoplectic right now in the press box, as he should be.
• What? Kris Letang takes a shot, looks like it hits Rickard Rakell on the way in, immediately waived off for goaltender interference. I don’t see it. Rakell was outside the crease. Penguins are challenging.
• Tim Stutzle gets a shorthanded breakaway. Looked like Arturs Silovs deflected it into the post.
• Erik Karlsson looks like he doesn’t care.
• Penguins get a power play with 11:49 left. Claude Giroux whacked Sidney Crosby over the shins and tripped him. Like old times.
• GOAL: Claude Giroux. Pass was actually intended to go to Michael Amadio, it ended up in his skates and he had no idea where it was, Giroux was the only one who saw it and just picked it up and put it in. Erik Karlsson waived his hand dismissively at that after? Senators 3, Penguins 0
• GOAL: David Perron is indeed still in the league. Goes to the net. Jordan Spence takes a shot from the goal line. Hits Perron’s leg and goes in. Second D pair was out there again. Senators 2, Penguins 0
• Second period is underway.
• End of the first. Penguins trail 1-0. Brady Tkachuk with the lone goal. Shots are 8-7 Penguins. Time to go drink some flat soda.
• Penguins kill off their power play.
• Anthony Mantha is getting into it with the Senators’ bench on this power play.
• Penguins to the power play with 2:11 left in the first. Justin Brazeau drew an interference penalty on Nikolas Matinpalo
• Nice sprawling save from Arturs Silovs. He’s been fine, really. Bad penalty call on him gave Ottawa that power play, and that really wasn’t a soft goal he gave up. That was on Kris Letang defending more than anything else.
• Danton Heinen with an absolute laser of a shot. Looked like it hit the post at first and went into Linus Ullmark’s glove.
• Kris Letang is fine, by the way. Meaning his wrist, not his play.
• I’ve seen enough of Brett Kulak-Jack St. Ivany, put Ryan Graves-Connor Clifton back in next game.
• Think Kris Letang hurt his wrist or something around there on his last shift. Was hunched over holding it on the ice at the end, and now he’s at the end of the bench with an athletic trainer.
• Penguins should start just bowling over Linus Ullmark and falling down so they get a power play out of the tripping call. That’s legal now.
• GOAL: Brady Tkachuk on the power play. Right outside the crease, fires a one-timer through Arturs Silovs’ legs. Kris Letang can’t let that pass get through. Senators 1, Penguins 0
• Well, that’s one way to start. Arturs Silovs takes a tripping penalty 1:18 in. Not sure about that one, their guy just plowed through the crease. Danton Heinen will serve.
• This is underway.
• Applause for Erik Karlsson in the starting lineup announcement. Even bigger applause for Sidney Crosby.
• Some shuffling to the middle-six from last game, but same group, same D pairings:
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Tommy Novak – Justin Brazeau
Kevin Hayes – Ben Kindel – Rutger McGroarty
Danton Heinen – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon – Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea – Kris Letang
Brett Kulak – Jack St. Ivany
• None of their three anticipated scratches are warming up (pretty common to have one extra forward, one extra D to warm up) so today is the day someone will get hurt in warmups, I’m sure.
• Don’t get fooled by the poutine photo below, the food in the press box is bad. Hot dogs and the fountain soda machine is spitting out flat soda with a bad syrup-to-water ratio.