{"id":144708,"date":"2026-03-21T14:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T14:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144708\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T14:19:13","slug":"game-preview-winnipeg-jets-pittsburgh-penguins-3-21-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144708\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Winnipeg Jets @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3\/21\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who: Winnipeg Jets (28-29-11, 67 points, 6th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (34-18-16, 84 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)<\/p>\n

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and TSN3, national feed on NHL Network<\/p>\n

Pens\u2019 Path Ahead: The Penguins have two brutal rematches coming up during this three-game homestand, starting with meeting the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday for the second half of a back-to-back. The Pens then get a day off before reuniting with the visiting Colorado Avalanche next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Opponent Track: The Jets are heading into Saturday\u2019s matinee on a two-game losing streak after dropping a 4-3 shootout decision to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday before getting blown out 6-1 by the Boston Bruins on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Season Series: The Jets opened the Nov. 1 matchup between these teams with four straight goals, capped off by Kyle Connor\u2019s short-handed penalty shot, on their way to claiming a 5-2 win over the visiting Pens.<\/p>\n

Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Alex Iafallo<\/p>\n

Cole Perfetti – Adam Lowry – Gabriel Vilardi<\/p>\n

Gustav Nyquist – Jonathan Toews – Isak Rosen<\/p>\n

Cole Koepke – Morgan Barron – Brad Lambert<\/p>\n

Josh Morrissey \/ Dylan DeMelo<\/p>\n

Dylan Samberg \/ Elias Salomonsson<\/p>\n

Haydn Fleury \/ Jacob Bryson<\/p>\n

Goalies: Connor Hellebuyck \/ Eric Comrie<\/p>\n

Potential scratches: Vladislav Namestnikov, Ville Heinola<\/p>\n

Injured Reserve: Neal Pionk, Colin Miller, Nino Niederreiter<\/p>\n

The Jets have just three players this season with more than 15 goals, and they\u2019re all in their top six (Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi).Connor Hellebuyck is coming off one of the worst starts of his recent regular-season career after allowing six goals in Thursday\u2019s blowout loss to the Boston Bruin.\"\"<\/a>The Jets are in a tough spot. They\u2019re technically still in the playoff race (five points back, 14 games remaining). They\u2019re also currently projected to select sixth in the NHL draft lottery by Tankathon<\/a>. Angling for better lottery odds could be a good move for a franchise theoretically hoping to take advantage of the remaining competitive window around their core of Mark Scheifele (33 years old), Kyle Connor (29) and Connor Hellebuyck (32) by bouncing back next season.<\/p>\n

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin<\/p>\n

Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n

Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon \/ Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea \/ Connor Clifton<\/p>\n

Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner<\/p>\n

Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes, Jack St. Ivany, Ville Koivunen<\/p>\n

IR: Sidney Crosby, Filip Hallander, Blake Lizotte<\/p>\n

Looks like Sam Girard, who has missed five games with a lower-body injury, could draw back into the lineup after taking regular line rushes<\/a> during Friday\u2019s practice. That\u2019s set to place him back on the second pairing alongside Kris Letang while bumping Ilya Solovyov from the lineup.Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany were both participating in Friday\u2019s practice as well, although they were doing so on the extra pairing.Erik Karlsson was named the NHLPA\u2019s Player of the Week on Friday for his efforts to keep the Pens afloat on their recent road trip.<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls just won\u2019t stop winning. The race is so tight that a regulation loss for the Penguins could mean not only falling out of the top three in the Metro but all the way out of a postseason spot altogether. Here\u2019s a look at the out-of-town schedule to keep an eye on tonight.<\/p>\n

Seattle Kraken at Columbus Blue Jackets: 5 p.m. ETNew York Islanders at Montr\u00e9al Canadiens: 7 p.m. ETToronto Maple Leafs at Ottawa Senators: 7 p.m. ETBoston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings: 8 p.m. ET\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NHL.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: Winnipeg Jets (28-29-11, 67 points, 6th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (34-18-16, 84 points, 2nd place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1446,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-144708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-general","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}