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<\/a>Now one of the most famous hockey players in the world, Jack Hughes has been going crazy lately with 13 points (5G+8A) in his last six games. Hughes has been electric when playing, with the \u2018when playing\u2019 being a caveat being as this will be the third straight season he\u2019s missed 20 games.Markstrom is one of the biggest personifications\/examples of why former Penguin AGM Tom Fitzgerald lost his job as NJD general manager. Fitzgerald traded a first round pick for Markstrom, who has struggled since coming to New Jersey. Oh yeah, and then he extended the 36-year old goalie to a fairly pricey $6.0m cap hit that will run through 2027-28 while he was injured. Lots of yikes with that whole situation.Timo Meier is another example, it looked like a great add but he\u2019s mostly just been OK. OK isn\u2019t good enough to bring in on a big trade and then hand a $70 million contract. The Devils have Meier through 2030-31 with some NMC partially in play, they\u2019ll have to figure out how to unlock his game in the near future to improve the team\u2019s fortunes.Ondrej Palat ended up being another in the \u2018bag of bad decisions\u2019 for Fitzgerald. Given a $30 million contract, the Devils had to trade a third round pick to get rid of Palat, taking on the under-performing Tsyplakov who is still signed for next season at a $2.5 million cap hit. There\u2019s a hypothetical parallel world where Meier\/Markstrom\/Palat all are hits and help power New Jersey\u2019s core with the Hughes\u2019, Hischier and Bratt to becoming one of the top teams in the East, but it didn\u2019t end up working out that way in this one.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.pensburgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2026\/04\/rsm5sr6gkd90n3zee4u0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEgor Chinakhov – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust<\/p>\n
Tommy Novak – Rickard Rakell – 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: Stuart Skinner, Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov<\/p>\n
Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves, Jack St. Ivany<\/p>\n
IR: Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones (season-ending shoulder surgery)<\/p>\n
Rest is a weapon and one the Pens were finally able to use a little bit during their three-day break from the last game on Sunday. The whole team was off on Monday, and then Tuesday only a bare bones crew skated (Skinner, Silovs, Murashov, Brazeau, Girard, A. Hayes, K. Hayes, Solovyov, Graves, St. Ivany) which gave the bulk of their squad two full days off.It looks like Skinner should be good to go with the status of his eye after dealing with swelling on Sunday – at least to serve as backup. In addition to skating Tuesday, he took the full practice yesterday and relegated Murashov to more of a third goalie role. Dan Muse announced all three goalies would travel<\/a> to New Jersey, so Murashov will be sticking with the team just in case, but it doesn\u2019t look like he will be playing tonight.Goalie drama aside, all the other lines and pairings remained static from previous days.Girard has four points (4A) in the last five games, while recording a +7 in the plus\/minus category. That stat can have its broader issues, but a good indicator of goals going in the right net lately for the Girard\/Letang pair.Soderblom has six points (3G+3A) in his last six games.Chinakhov has 19 points (7G+12A) over his last 17 games, with a stick tap to Pens PR for the last few recent stats.<\/p>\n Rakell\u2019s goal and point streak<\/p>\n