The Pittsburgh Penguins face the Ottawa Senators with both teams looking to improve from rocky seasons. The Penguins have a 22-15-6 record but have only won three of their last 10 games. The Senators have a 19-21-3 record and with back-to-back losses have fallen to the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Both teams look to improve in the Eastern Conference and the upcoming game looks to be a good one as a result.
The Penguins are having a promising season with their offense stepping up and scoring 3.21 goals per game. Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Evgeni Malkin have scored 54 goals and 75 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has also stepped up. Rickard Rakell, Jason Zucker, and Bryan Rust have combined for 36 goals and 48 assists while Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen, and Brock McGinn have added 23 goals and 28 assists to the backend of the forward unit, making the Penguins offense tough to stop.
The offense has been great but the defense has struggled, allowing 3.02 goals per game. Marcus Pettersson and Jan Rutta have combined for 3.9 defensive point shares and 140 blocked shots but the rest of the unit has struggled, allowing opponents to find open shots on the net at will. In addition, goaltender Casey DeSmith has struggled with a .906 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-again st average on 554 shots.