The Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena tonight. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.
PENGUINS (6-9-3) at BLUE JACKETS (5-8-2)
7 p.m. ET; FDSNOH, SN-PIT, NHLN, SNP, SNO, SNE
Penguins projected lineup
Anthony Beauvillier — Sidney Crosby — Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting — Evgeni Malkin — Bryan Rust
Jesse Puljujarvi — Drew O’Connor — Sam Poulin
Matthew Nieto — Noel Acciari — Valtteri Puustinen
Marcus Pettersson — Erik Karlsson
Matt Grzelcyk — Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Graves — Ryan Shea
Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratched: Vasiliy Ponomarev, Owen Pickering
Injured: Kevin Hayes (upper body), Cody Glass (concussion), Blake Lizotte (concussion), Kris Letang (illness)
Status report
- St. Ivany replaces Letang, a defenseman who will miss his first game this season.
- Nieto will make his season debut; he has not played since Nov. 30, 2023, when he sustained a left knee injury that led to reconstructive MCL surgery in May. He will replaced Lizotte, a forward who left in the first period of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday after being hit in the face with a puck on a shot by O’Connor.
- Jarry will make his first start since Oct. 16; he was recalled Nov. 9 following a conditioning stint with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
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Blue Jackets projected lineup
Dmitri Voronkov — Sean Monahan — Kirill Marchenko
Cole Sillinger — Adam Fantilli — Yegor Chinakhov
Mikael Pyyhtia — Justin Danforth — Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese — Sean Kuraly — Kevin Labanc
Zach Werenski — Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov — Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen — Jordan Harris
Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov
Scratched: James van Riemsdyk, Jack Johnson, David Jiricek
Injured: Boone Jenner (upper body), Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Kent Johnson (upper body)
Status report
- Kent Johnson, a forward, practiced for a second straight day and will make the trip for games at the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and the Boston Bruins on Monday.
- Harris replaces defenseman Jack Johnson.
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