Early this afternoon (or super late this morning), the Jets play their second straight road game as part of their current three game road trip. The Jets lost big time against the Bruins 6-1 on Thursday, and now the Jets continue on the road with a visit to the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins have exceeded their expectations so far this season, and it could be a challenging matchup for the Jets on this Saturday on the first full (24 hours) day of spring.

The Jets will battle against a team that is 4-3-3 in their last 10 games, and are sitting currently top 10 in the NHL standings with 84 points. The Jets (somehow) remain 5 points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wildcard spot, but there’s three teams ahead of the Jets (before the Kings), keeping the Jets with a very outside chance at making the playoffs. The 27th overall 28-29-11 Winnipeg Jets and the 7th overall 34-18-16 Penguins will clash with each team having just 14 games left in the regular season.

The Jets and Penguins met once earlier this regular season. The season series started way back on November 1st in Winnipeg, where the Jets earned a 5-2 win. These two teams will not meet again this season, meaning the Jets will either sweep (2-0) the season series tonight or the Penguins will tie it up at one win each.

The injury report for the Winnipeg Jets still has four names: Neal Pionk, Nino Niederreiter, Colin Miller and Vladislav Namestnikov. Miller and Pionk have resumed skating on his own recently, and it appears that Pionk could be the closest to returning to the lineup. The Penguins added three players to their injury report yesterday, and are now up to seven players out. The good news for Penguins fans is that only two or three of these injuries appear to be “long term”, while the rest should be day to day or short term.

Connor – Scheifele – Iafallo

Perfetti – Lowry – Vilardi

Nyquist – Toews – Rosen

Koepke – Barron – Lambert

Morrissey – DeMelo

Samberg – Salomonsson

Fleury – Bryson

Hellebuyck

Comrie

Injured: Nino Niederreiter, Vladislav Namestnikov, Neal Pionk and Colin Miller

The unconfirmed starting goalie is Connor Hellebuyck (17-19-10), who will likely start the first game of this weekend back to back before Eric Comrie starts tomorrow morning against the Rangers. The Jets lineup appears to be without any changes once again, as the Jets seem to have solidified their line combinations entering the final stretch of the regular season. As always, there could be some late announced lineup changes by the Jets prior to the game, so make sure to stay tuned to the Jets official X/Twitter account for any late lineup additions or changes prior to puck drop.

Rakell – Crosby – Rust

Chinakhov – Novak – Malkin

Mantha – Kindel – Brazeau

Soderblom – Dewar – Acciari

Wotherspoon – Karlsson

Girard* – Letang (Girard is a game time decision)

Shea – Clifton

Silovs

Skinner

Injured: Jack St. Ivany, Filip Hallander, Joel Blomqvist and Ryan Graves

The Penguins lineup is an interesting one, as at first glance you may wonder how this is a team in 7th place overall in the league standings. The veteran players continue to play at a high level, and there are several players exceeding expectations, which together has greatly helped this team succeed this season. Looking at the Penguins’ player stats through 68 games, Sidney Crosby slightly leads the way in points (despite missing 11 games) with an impressive 61 points in 57 games. Arturs Silovs is the unconfirmed starting goalie. In his first full season in the NHL (after being traded by the Canucks), Silovs has excelled in a 1A/1B situation with Stuart Skinner as the other netminder (previously Tristian Jarry), and Silovs could be the starting goalie come playoff time. Silovs has a 15-9-8 record with a decent 2.89 GAA and a .894 SV% with 2 shutouts.

This afternoon the player to watch from each team is simply a player who I think is due for a goal on this Saturday afternoon game. Morgan Barron recently recorded his 22nd point of the season, setting a new career high. Barron has succeed in his mostly 4th line role this season, and with one more goal he could tie his career high of 11 goals in a season. After some line juggling earlier in the season, the chemistry with Cole Koepke and Brad Lambert seems to work (at least for now) for Barron. Watch out for Barron to grind out some minutes against a Penguins team with a balanced four forward lines.

Before talking about Evgeni Malkin, I have to give a quick shoutout to Penguins defenceman Erik Karlsson, who has a whopping 10 points in his last 5 games. Anyways, back to Malkin, who missed 20 games earlier this season. In 48 games, Malkin has 15 goals and 36 assists for 51 points, one point more than he got last season in 68 games. Malkin is now just three points away from 1400 in his historic career, and his continued excellence has helped the Penguins in a big way this season. Watch for Malkin on the 2nd line wing to make an impact in front of the Penguins fans this afternoon.

Puck drop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is set for just after 12:00 pm CDT. This early afternoon’s game will be a tough test for the Jets, who will be attempting to stay in the playoff conversation after a big loss on Thursday. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for a recap of the action, as the Jets look to prevent the Penguins from getting closer to a playoff berth, while hopefully also increasing their chances at a wildcard spot on a busy night of hockey around the NHL.