Pittsburgh Review

The Pittsburgh Penguins are set to face off against the Florida Panthers in South Florida, marking their first game of 2025. The match will take place at Amerant Bank Arena with a puck drop scheduled for 7:00 PM. Fans can watch the game on SportsNet Pittsburgh and NHL Network or listen via 105.9 the X and the Penguins app.

The Penguins hold a record of 17-17-5, while the Panthers stand at 23-13-2. Historically, Pittsburgh has secured points in 21 out of their last 28 encounters with Florida since December 2014, boasting a record of 16-7-5 in those games.

Bryan Rust is approaching a milestone as he aims to become the 28th player from his draft class to reach 600 NHL games. He was drafted in the third round (80th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft and is also one point away from becoming the 15th player in franchise history to achieve 400 points.

Assistant Coach David Quinn has been instrumental in improving Pittsburgh's power play, which currently ranks fourth in the NHL with a success rate of 26.1%. Recently, Drew O’Connor scored his first career power-play goal, making him one of twelve Penguins players to score on the man advantage this season.

Sidney Crosby has scored against exactly 150 different goaltenders during his career, including Panthers' Sergei Bobrovsky. Only three active goalies have conceded more goals to Crosby than Bobrovsky.

Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are notable performers against Florida; they rank third and fifth among active skaters for points scored against the Panthers. Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang also hold significant records as defensemen when playing against Florida.

Other key players include Matt Nieto, who has seven goals against Florida—his highest tally against any team—and Blake Lizotte whose teams remain undefeated when he plays against them.

As they prepare for tonight's matchup, Cody Glass looks to extend his current point streak following assists in consecutive games.