Who: Columbus Blue Jackets (3-4-0, 6 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (6-2-0, 12 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)

How to Watch: Broadcast in the local markets on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sportsnet Ohio, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens are looking at a busy next week mostly spent on the road. The stretch starts out with a back-to-back set of games at home against the St. Louis Blues on Monday and on the road against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, followed by road games in Minnesota, Winnipeg and Toronto in a span of five days.

Opponent Track: After losing three of four games to start the season, the Blue Jackets have recently turned things around with back-to-back wins against the Tampa Bay Lightning and at the Dallas Stars.

Columbus is coming in on the second half of a back-to-back after losing 5-1 to Alex Ovechkin and the visiting Washington Capitals on Friday night. But that final score doesn’t reflect how close things were for most of the game. The Blue Jackets were within one goal until early in the third period, and Washington head coach Spencer Carbery said afterwards he believed “we just stole two points.”

Season Series: The Pens are playing in Columbus on Nov. 28 and Jan. 4, followed by another home game against the Jackets on Jan. 17. Last season the Blue Jackets won the first two games of the series before the Pens came out on top of a 6-3 victory in March.

Hidden Stat: Since the Blue Jackets joined the NHL in 2000 the Penguins have conceded just four regulation losses to the team (24-4-1 overall record). One of those four losses took place on Nov. 15 of last year.

Getting to know the Blue Jackets

Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko

Boone Jenner – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson

Cole Sillinger – Charlie Coyle – Mathieu Olivier

Zach Aston-Reese – Isac Lundestrom – Yegor Chinakhov

Zach Werenski / Denton Mateychuk

Ivan Provorov / Damon Severson

Dante Fabbro / Erik Gudbrandon

Goalies: Elvis Merzlikins (Jet Greaves started last night)

Potential scratches: Miles Wood (injury), Jake Christiansen

Blue Jackets forward Miles Wood returned to practice Thursday for the first time since Oct. 13, when he took a high stick to the face he said left him afraid he had lost his left eye, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. He remained sidelined for Friday’s game against the Caps.

Season stats
via hockeydb, does not include last night’s game against the Caps

Denton Mateychuk, a 2022 first-round pick skating on the Blue Jackets’ top pairing during his second NHL season, scored his second goal of the season on a Sean Monahan assist Friday night.The penalty kill has been a serious issue for the Blue Jackets so far this season. The team headed into Friday’s matchup with Washington having killed off an NHL-low 60 percent of penalties so far this season. You can find multiple examples from early in the season of the unit breaking down and allowing an opponent an all-but unchallenged opportunity at the netfront.The Capitals took advantage of those struggles by scoring back-to-back power-play goals late in Friday night’s third period.

Projected lines (from Thursday’s game)

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Anthony Mantha – Evgeni Malkin – Justin Brazeau

Tommy Novak – Ben Kindel – Filip Hallander

Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson

Caleb Jones / Connor Clifton

Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs

Potential Scratches: Philip Tomasino, Mathew Dumba, Harrison Brunicke

IR: Kevin Hayes (upper body), Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body)

The Penguins are heading into tonight’s matchup on a four-game winning streak. Should the Pens remain in the win column tonight, it would mark the team’s longest winning streak since November 2023.Sidney Crosby is on the rarest of goalscoring streaks. He has scored on all five of his last five shots while recording at least one goal in each of the Penguins’ last four games.