Game Preview: Dallas Stars @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3/28/2026

Season stats
via hockeydb

• Wyatt Johnston has recorded career highs in both goals and points while centering Jason Robertson, who is enjoying his fourth straight 80-point season in Dallas.

• It’s been an up-and-down season for Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger, although he’s been strong as of late. The Stars are playing the Philadelphia Flyers on the road tomorrow, so they’ll have to decide whether Oettinger or former Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith will be getting the start in Pittsburgh tonight.

• DeSmith, by the way, has only played against Pittsburgh once in his career. That happened last year as a member of the Stars, where he stopped 35 of 39 shots but picked up the loss. Oettinger has a lot of career success against the Pens, boasting a 6-1-0 record with a .942 save% and 1.71 GAA.

• The Stars have been running one of the most formidable power plays in the NHL this season, although their top unit has recently taken a hit with the injury absence of Mikko Rantanen.

• Dallas has had some injury issues but they haven’t played many different players, just 27 skaters have dressed this season. By comparison, the Penguins have dressed 38 different skaters so far this season.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines 

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby* – Bryan Rust

Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Anthony Mantha

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Ville Koivunen – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau

Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson

Sam Girard / Kris Letang

Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton

Goalies:  Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner

Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves, Evgeni Malkin (injured)

IR: Filip Hallander, Jack St. Ivany

• The Pens canceled a practice yesterday, so we’ll have to wait and see for this morning on any updates on the status of Crosby. If Crosby can’t play, it’s possible that Joona Koppanen will be in the lineup as a bottom-six center. The team could also opt to shift Rickard Rakell or Noel Acciari to center for the day and insert a winger like Avery Hayes into the lineup. Depending on Crosby’s status it could be a very fluid situation with a couple different options on how they want to go about patching a lineup together.

• We’ll also await word on Evgeni Malkin, officially day-to-day with an undisclosed injury (believed to be in the finger/hand area). Malkin did not even travel with the team to Ottawa for Thursday’s game which might not bode well for his availability just a couple days later.

• Bryan Rust is currently in the midst of a career-long nine-game point streak (5G-8A) and has points in 14 of his last 15 games played (7G-12A) dating back to Feb. 28th, per Pens PR. Rust’s streak is the second longest active one in the league behind Boston’s David Pastranak (11).

• Sam Girard is set to play in career game No. 600 today. Not bad for a guy who won’t turn 28 until May.

• Whether or not the goalie rotation continues will be interesting as well, Skinner has been performing much better than Silovs lately — but the team has other considerations in mind with a massive set of games on Monday/Tuesday against NYI and Detroit. They may want to keep Skinner fresh and in rhythm for that Monday game by not leaning too hard on him today, which would make Monday his third game in five days. They may also not want Silovs to have his next action come on Tuesday and have him go a full week between starts by skipping him today. Lots to weigh and consider for that decision on who plays in goal today for the Pens with more variables in mind than simply this one game.

Erik Karlsson is deep into Paul Coffey territory for points in a single month — always a great sign for any defender. Across the NHL this month, only Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (26) has more points than Karlsson with his 21.