The Pittsburgh Penguins are having another excellent season and on Monday night they will be matching up and hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the CONSOL Energy Center and the matchups puts two solid scoring teams against one another and they will be playing at 7 PM and the game will be streaming online from the main NHL league website.
The Penguins have been playing very well once again and have 47 points already and are leading the Metro division with a 23-10-1 record and Sidney Crosby has once again been a huge factor. The team is coming off of a nice win over the Detroit Red Wings and the team will next play on Wednesday in a big divisional matchup with the New York Rangers and that game will be at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers are chasing the Penguins in the division and they now have the Maple Leafs on Monday night and the matchup gives the Leafs a chance to move up a bit and the Penguins will be looking to continue their great scoring this season, as they rank sixth in the league with three goals per game and they also are tops in power play percentage and the Leafs will have to be on top of that as well.
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The Penguins come into the game ranked tops in the league in power play percentage and they also are ranked second in penalty kill percentage and the team has been very good on defense as well, allowing just two goals per game on the season. Evgeni Malkin injured his leg the other night and Crosby is once again leading the team in points and goals with 18 and 46 points and he has been playing very well this season. The Penguins have a 10 point lead over the Capitals in the division standings and they have been on their game once again this season.
The Maple Leafs had a great performance against the Chicago Blackhawks with seven goals against the Stanley Cup champions on Saturday and after playing the Penguins they next will play the Florida Panthers at home. The team is ranked fifth in the Atlantic division and are 10th in the league with just under three goals per game and they are third in power play percentage and 22nd in goals against. In other NHL news from Reuters.com: Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard has a sprained MCL that will cause him to miss 2-4 weeks of action, Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said, according to the Detroit News.
Howard, who is just 6-8-7 with a 2.65 goals-against average and .910 save percentage, could miss as many as 12 games if he is sidelined the entire four weeks.
Jonas Gustavsson will be the Red Wings' No. 1 goalie in Howard's absence, with Petr Mrazek as his backup. Gustavsson has an 8-1-2 record with a 1.92 goals-against average and .933 save percentage this season. The NHL announced that Philadelphia Flyers forward Brayden Schenn was fined $2,230.77 for cross-checking Chicago Blackhawks forward Kris Versteeg.
The incident occurred at the 13:25 mark of the second period of Wednesday's game in Chicago. No penalty was assessed on the play. Right winger Jamal Mayers, who played in more than 900 NHL games, announced his retirement Friday after 14 seasons. (Reuters)
