The Pittsburgh Penguins face the Carolina Hurricanes with both teams looking to build off strong starts to the season. The Penguins have an 18-8-4 record and with seven wins in a row have leaped to the top of the Metropolitan Division while the Hurricanes have an 18-6-6 record and are in second place in the Metropolitan Division. Both teams look to remain near the top of the division and the Eastern Conference and the upcoming game should be a great one as a result.
The Penguins are having a remarkable season with their offense leading the way, scoring 3.50 goals per game with 27 goals in the last seven games. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jake Guentzel have scored 42 goals and 60 assists to lead the top two lines but the entire offense has been great. Rickard Rakell, Jason Zucker, and Bryan Rust have combined for 25 goals and 34 assists while Jeff Carter, Brock McGinn, and Kasperi Kapanen have added 17 goals and 22 assists to the backend of the forward unit, making the Penguins offense tough to stop.
The offense has carried the Penguins but the defense has also stepped up, allowing only 2.87 goals per game with only four goals in the last three games. Marcus Pettersson and Jan Rutta have combined for 3.4 defensive point shares and 95 blocked shots while Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Jeff Petry, and Brian Dumoulin have combined for 4.1 defensive point shares to ad d depth to the unit. In addition, goaltender Tristan Jarry has stepped up in the net with a .921 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average on 675 shots.