Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Philadelphia Flyers (6-10-1, 13 points) and Pittsburgh Penguins (11-6-0, 22 points) faceoff live from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh for the second of five meetings between these two Metropolitan Division rivals. The game can be live streamed here. Philadelphia fans can hear all of the bone-crunching action by turning their dials to 97.5 The Fanatic while Pittsburgh fans can do the same on WXDX 105.9 The X.
Pittsburgh enters play on top of the Metropolitan Division while Philadelphia is in seventh place and is nine points shy of the Pens in the division. In the first battle of Pennsylvania this season, the Penguins got the better of the Flyers 4-1 in Philadelphia.
The Penguins enter play having scored 50 goals in 17 games despite the fact that Evgeni Malkin has only found the twine three times so far. Though the Pens have showed a knack for scoring, the team has lost two straight games and their last loss came at the hands of the St. Louis Blues by a 2-1 count on Saturday.
While the Penguins have been able to score, the Flyers enter play with just 31 goals through 17 games and captain Claude Giroux has only scored once this season. Still, the Penguins aren't taking their state rivals lightly.
"We always expect their best. They were struggling a little bit before we played them the last time, and I didn't really see much of a difference in their team," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said Tuesday per NHL.com. "They create a lot, and we definitely have to be ready. I think that they always play well here, so we have to be ready to make sure that we're at our best."
Crosby is tied for the NHL lead in points (23) off of eight goals and 15 assists while Chris Kunitz has also paved the way for the Penguins with eight goals and eight assists for 16 points and Malkin--despite having only three goals--has added 12 assists for 15 points.
Though the Flyers have struggled to score, the team had no lack of a scoring touch on Tuesday when it defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-0 to notch its second win in a row.
"The way we're playing, we're playing as a team, we're following the way we should be playing and we're working hard," Giroux said per NHL.com. "Obviously, when you've got Steve Mason behind us, too, it's easy to play with confidence."
Mason notched his first shutout during the game and is 5-7-1 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. Marc Andre-Fleury has started 14 of the 17 games this season for Pittsburgh and has gone 10-4-0 with a 2.07 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
If Fleury gets the nod, he'll look to stop a Flyers group that's led by Vincent Lecavalier, Brayden Schenn and Giroux, who each have ten points. Lecavalier has seven goals and three assists, Schenn has four tallies and six helpers and Giroux--though he's only lit the lamp once this season--has nine assists.
It will be a battle of Pennsylvania when the puck drops on the Flyers and Penguins at Consol Energy Center tonight in Pittsburgh.
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