Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins (42-17-4, 88 points) and Washington Capitals (30-25-10, 70 points) faceoff for the third of four meetings against each other this season live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the action on105.9 WXDX while Washington fans can do the same on WFED 1500.
Pittsburgh has won two of its last three games entering play while Washington has lost three of its last four. The Penguins have defeated the Capitals in both previous meetings, notching a 4-0 win in Washington on Nov. 20 and a 4-3 triumph on Jan. 15 in Pittsburgh.
The Penguins are trying to keep pace with the Boston Bruins atop the Eastern Conference, and the team has a huge week of games starting with a back-to-back against Washington and another back-to-back with the Philadelphia Flyers this weekend.
"This is a big week ahead of us," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik told NHL.com. "We need to keep getting better."
The Capitals will hope to get a boost from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is one of the top prospects in the world and will make his debut tonight.
"Any hockey player wants to play in the NHL, wants to win the Cup. It's my dream, [to] play in NHL," Kuznetsov said via NHL.com. "I'm ready, 100 percent. I want to play. If you good hockey player it doesn't matter where you play -- big ice, small ice. I'm ready to play hard hockey. I'm not scared."
Alex Ovechkin leads the Capitals with 67 points off of an NHL-best 44 goals and 23 assists while Nicklas Backstrom has 12 tallies and 51 helpers for 63 points and Marcus Johansson has lit the lamp eight times while adding 30 assists for 38 points.
Sidney Crosby has paced the Penguins with 84 points off of 29 goals and 55 assists while Evgeni Malkin has 19 markers and 45 helpers for 64 points and Chris Kunitz has hit the back of the net 29 times and added 28 assists for 57 points.
In between the pipes, Pittsburgh will likely go with Marc-Andre Fleury, who is 33-14-3 with a 2.31 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage while Braden Holtby will likely suit up for Washington, and is 19-14-3 with a 2.98 GAA and a .911 save percentage.
The Capitals and Penguins go head-to-head when they hit the ice tonight at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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