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

Who: Dallas Stars (43-18-11, 97 points, 2nd place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (36-20-16, 88 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)

When: 5:00 p.m. eastern

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Victory+, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins have a back-to-back coming up that will have a major impact on the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Pens take on the New York Islanders on the road on Monday before matching up with the Detroit Red Wings at home on Tuesday.

Opponent Track: The Stars have hit a recent skid, going 1-4-1 in their last six games (coming on the heels of going 8-0-1 in the first nine games out of the Olympic break). When Dallas is good, they’re very good but that hasn’t been the case recently having lost four-straight games (0-3-1) with losses to Minnesota, Vegas, New Jersey and most recently a 2-1 regulation defeat to the Islanders on Thursday night. Between the Stars’ slide, combined with Colorado’s recent four-game winning streak, it looks like Dallas is heading towards the ‘first round matchup of doom’ this year in the Central Division against Minnesota in what could feature two 105+ point teams squaring off.

Season Series: Back before the Penguins exorcised their shootout demons, they lost a 3-2 shootout decision against the Stars on Dec. 7 thanks to a Mikko Rantanen shootout goal against Tristan Jarry.

Hidden Stat: The Stars clinched a playoff spot on Sunday, which marked the franchise’s fewest games to earn a playoff spot (70) since the team did it in 63 games during their 1998-99 Stanley Cup season (h/t NHL Stats).

Hidden Stat 2.0: Home ice hasn’t been that friendly to the Penguins, who have only won 16 out of the 35 games at PPG Paints Arena (with another “home” win in the standings counted in a victory in Sweden when the Pens were designated as the home team). Overall the Pens are just 16-11-8 this season in their true home arena.

Getting to know the Stars

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Jason Robertson – Wyatt Johnston – Mavrik Bourque

Michael Bunting – Matt Duchene – Jamie Benn

Sam Steel – Justin Hryckowian – Colin Blackwell

Adam Erne – Oskar Back – Nathan Bastian

DEFENSEMEN

Esa Lindell / Miro Heiskanen

Thomas Harley / Nils Lundkvist

Lian Bichsel / Tyler Myers

Goalies: Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith

Potential scratches: Roope Hintz (lower body)

Injured Reserve: Mikko Rantanen (lower body), Radek Faksa (lower body), Tyler Seguin (season-ending knee injury)

Rantanen is nearing a return from injury, he participated in Thursday’s morning skate ahead of the NYI game (though he didn’t play). As of 12 days ago Rantanen was said to be 10-14 days away, so he’s right in the window for a possible return to action for today’s game.

The Stars will be without Tyler Seguin for the rest of the season and the playoffs after placing him on LTIR in February amid his recovery from a torn ACL. They’ll still hope to get Hintz and Faksa back in time for the postseason, in addition to the impending return of Rantanen.
Former Penguin Michael Bunting was one of the Stars’ additions at the trade deadline alongside defenseman Tyler Myers. Bunting has since slotted in on Dallas’ second line alongside Matt Duchene.
Dallas could soon have two brothers on the same team for the first time since Jamie and Jordie Benn. The Stars recently signed Dylan Hryckowian, brother and former college teammate of third-line center Justin Hryckowian, to an entry-level contract.

Stars going dim

Generating offense has been an issue for Dallas during their current losing streak. They’re currently without two of their top-five point producers and stretching others into bigger roles has had an effect on output lately.

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

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.

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