{"id":397811,"date":"2026-01-08T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397811\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:22:09","slug":"lines-goalies-how-to-watch-vs-devils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/397811\/","title":{"rendered":"Lines, Goalies, & How to Watch vs. Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> (20-12-9) have won five in a row and are gaining strength after the NHL holiday break. Their Thursday opponent, the New Jersey Devils<\/a> (20-19-2), is headed in the opposite direction amidst public calls for significant organizational changes. <\/p>\n

The Metro Division rivals face off at PPG Paints Arena Thursday. The puck drop is just after 7 p.m. when Mr. Jeff Jimmerson sings the National Anthem. <\/p>\n

Despite the recent Devils\u2019 struggles, the FanDuel NHL odds<\/a> expect a one-goal game, and the Penguins are only slight favorites (-115). However, the FanDuel research<\/a> team shows the Penguins have a 61% chance at victory.<\/p>\n

The Penguins trailed the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Sunday, deep into the second period. However, Noel Acciari scored his fourth goal of the year, and there was an obvious and immediate sea change. The Penguins scored three unanswered goals, including Sidney Crosby\u2019s overtime game-winner. <\/p>\n

Ville Koivunen scored his second career goal in the first period. Tommy Novak scored an early third period goal to cut the Columbus lead to 4-3, and Rickard Rakell<\/a> scored a dramatic game-tying goal with 12 seconds remaining to force overtime. <\/p>\n

The Penguins currently have the seventh-best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference and hold the second wild card spot, one point behind the Washington Capitals for the first spot, with three games in hand. <\/p>\n

The Penguins are also six points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the division lead with two games in hand. <\/p>\n

Conversely, New Jersey is in dire straits. Despite getting top center Jack Hughes back from a non-hockey injury, the team has lost two in a row and has just four wins in its last 10 games (4-5-1). <\/p>\n

New Jersey is fresh from a 9-0 embarrassment against the New York Islanders Tuesday. New Jersey Hockey Now beat writer James Nichols has chronicled the internal and external frustrations:<\/p>\n

Read More: This Can\u2019t Continue. Pressure On Devils GM at Boiling Point<\/a><\/p>\n

Thursday could be the return of Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin<\/a> after a month-long absence due to an upper-body injury. However, Malkin may play on the wing with Ben Kindel in the middle. Coach Dan Muse<\/a> was coy about his practice lines Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The team assigned Ville Koivunen to the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

In keeping with the Penguins\u2019 goalie rotation, Stuart Skinner is the likely starter. Jacob Markstrom suffered through the humiliating 9-0 loss and is the likely Devils starter. <\/p>\n

How to Watch<\/p>\n

TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

Radio: 105.9 The X<\/p>\n

Expected Penguins Lines<\/p>\n

Rickard Rakell-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Evgeni Malkin-Ben Kindel-Egor Chinakhov<\/p>\n

Anthony Mantha-Tommy Novak-Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n

Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari<\/p>\n

Defense<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Brett Kulak-Kris Letang<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea-Jack St. Ivany<\/p>\n

Goalie: Stuart Skinner, confirmed<\/p>\n

Expected Devils Lines<\/p>\n

Jack Hughes-Nico Hischier<\/a>-Jesper Bratt<\/p>\n

Timo Meier-Dawson Mercer-Arseny Gritsyuk<\/p>\n

Paul Cotter-Cody Glass-Connor Brown<\/p>\n

Ondrej Palat-Luke Glendening-Stefan Noesen<\/p>\n

Defensemen<\/p>\n

Jonas Siegenthaler-Dougie Hamilton<\/p>\n

Luke Hughes<\/a>-Brett Pesce<\/p>\n

Brenden Dillon-Simon Nemec<\/p>\n

Goalie: Jacob Markstrom, expected<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/p>\n

Penguins\u2019 power play: 29.7%, 2nd. Penguins penalty kill: 81.5%, 11th.<\/p>\n

Devils power play: 20.2%, 14th. Devils penalty kill: 77.5%, 22nd.<\/p>\n

Penguins Game Notes<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an even series over the last several years. The Penguins have points in 15 of their last 23 games against New Jersey (11-8-4) dating back to Mar. 20, 2021. But the Penguins are 5-5-2 against New Jersey at home. <\/p>\n

Sidney Crosby\u2019s 24 goals this season are tied for sixth in the NHL, and only Boston\u2019s Morgan Geekie (25) has more goals among Eastern Conference skaters.<\/p>\n

The Penguins have the second-longest active winning streak in the NHL (5). Tampa Bay has won eight in a row.<\/p>\n

Crosby scored the overtime winning goal on Sunday to become the first player in NHL history to record 50 career overtime points. It was also his 25th career overtime goal, which ranks second in NHL history (Alex Ovechkin, 27).<\/p>\n

Crosby also has an active seven-game points streak (5-7-12). In the seemingly constant update of single-team records, Crosby\u2019s next assist will tie him with Wayne Gretzky for most assists with one team (1086). <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Penguins lines<\/a> Penguins starting goalie<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized: Penguins Pregame<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Penguins (20-12-9) have won five in a row and are gaining strength after the NHL holiday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,4,118,16008,29266,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-397811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-penguins","11":"tag-penguins-lines","12":"tag-penguins-starting-goalie","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","15":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115860402615039513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}