Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins will look to snap a two-game skid when they face Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Friday night. The game will mark Pittsburgh's third straight road game before heading home to face the Dallas Stars on Monday. The 5-8-2 Penguins look to move closer to .500.
Pittsburgh has several players sidelined before the game, with Matt Nieto and Bryan Rust on the injured reserve list. Winger Kevin Hayes will be out with an upper-body injury, while Cody Glass is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
With that in mind, the team's lines for tonight are expected to be as follows:
Forwards:
- LW Evgeni Malkin - C Sidney Crosby - RW Rickard Rakell
- LW Drew O'Connor - C Lars Eller - RW Valtteri Puustinen
- LW Anthony Beauvillier - C Noel Acciari - RW Jesse Puljujarvi
- LW Michael Bunting - C Black Lizotte - RW Jack St. Ivany
Defense:
- Kris Letang - Matt Grzelcyk
- Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
- Ryan Graves - Jack St. Ivany
Goalies:
- Joel Blomqvist
- Alex Nedeljkovic
Powerplay:
- Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, Matt Grzelcyk
- Michael Bunting, Lars Eller, Jesse Puljujarvi, Kris Letand, Vatteri Puustinen
Penalty Kill:
- Noel Acciari, Drew O'Connor, Marcus Pettersson, Kris Letang
- Cody Glass, Lars Eller, Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Graves
Looking at the odds for tonight's Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals game and upcoming games for the Penguins
Ahead of tonight's game, which is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PST (7:40 p.m. EST), the Washington Capitals are sitting as slight favorites on most major U.S. sportsbooks.
Given that the team has gone 8-2-0 over their last ten this isn't necessarily surprising news. At the time of publication, the Capitals have -175 odds to win on DraftKings, while the Penguins are +145 underdogs.
These odds are consistent with those seen on FanDuel, where the Penguins are +146 underdogs and the Capitals are -176 favorites.
To simplify these odds using the FanDuel numbers as an example, it would take a $176 bet on Washington as the favorites to win whereas a $100 bet on Pittsburgh as the underdogs would win $146.
The Pens will head home following Friday night's game for a two-game stretch as they host the Dallas Stars on Monday and the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.
The team will close out the week with a back-to-back, facing the Blue Jackets on the road on Friday before returning home for a Nov. 16 game against the San Jose Sharks.