The Penguins look to rebound from a 4-3 loss on Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight when they host the Colorado Avalanche at PPG Paints Arena.  The contest will mark the end of the Penguins’ longest home stand of the year ( 5 games ) and with a win, Pittsburgh will finish the home-stand with a winning record having split the first four games/

Toronto climbed out to a 3-0 first period lead including two goals in  the first 1:42 of the game by Connor Brown and James van Riemsdyk.  Tyler Bozak would score mid-way through the first and the Pens were in a huge early hole, something that has been troublesome for the club throughout the year.

Tristan Jarry would be replaced after the first by Casey DeSmith.  Jarry made thirteen saves on sixteen first period Leafs shots.

Riley Sheahan and Evgeni Malkin would draw the Pens back within one with goals three minutes apart and appeared to have started a promising comeback.  However, just 22 seconds later as the period was trickling away, Bozak would get his second goal of the game and eventual game-winner as he deflected a Jake Gardener shot past De Smith with 1:47 to go in the middle period.

Sidney Crosby would get his thirteenth of the year with just under three minutes remaining in the game when he finished off an extra pass by Kris Letang as de Smith made his way to the bench for an extra attacker.

Pittsburgh however could not tie the game as Olli Maatta hit the post with a point shot and time eventually ran out.

After allowing the 16 first period shots, the Pens would out shoot Toronto 22-9 over the final 40 minutes and dominate play for long stretches to no avail.  The power play remained hot as Malkin’s goal came on the man-advantage that finished 1 for 4 on the night.  Toronto would fail on its’ lone power play opportunity.

In addition to Justin Schultz being injured last week, the Pens played without Tom Kuhnhackl who was injured in the Pens win over the Islanders on Thursday.

Patric Hornqvist was hit by a puck in the neutral zone in the third period, in the facial area and missed the rest of the game.  It would be a big loss if  Hornqvist misses extended time.

Dominik Simon would take his place in the line up and notch two assists in 11:27 of ice time

COLORADO COMES TO TOWN

The Avalanche come to town with a record of 13-13-2 good enough for 28 points and fly in to Pittsburgh after splitting a pair of games in the Sunshine state of Florida, losing to Tampa Bay before hammering the Florida Panthers 7-3 on Saturday night.

Will we see the return of Matt Murray to the Penguins line up?  It is certainly a possibility after the net minder took part in practice over the weekend without limitations and with the full squad. It would be a quick recovery for Murray who initially, it was thought could miss four weeks after being hurt against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 27th.

Also keep an eye to see if Hornqvist will be able to give it a go.  Already being down Kuhnhackl and the potential to not have Hornqvist would keep testing the Pens already thin roster depth.

So an interesting line up and shuttle between WB/S could be happening as injuries continue to rack up for the Pens who still sit in 4th in the Metro Division.  In a super competitive environment where the divisional teams keep leap-frogging one another, it would be good for Pittsburgh to stabilize their game-starts and possibly win another three or four in a row to go along with the five out of seven wins they have accumulated in the most recent stretch of games.

Nathan MacKinnon leads the Colorado club with 11 goals, 22 assists, and 33 points overall.  This will be the teams’ first meeting since Colorado traded away Matt Duchesne to Ottawa earlier this year.

Game time is set for 7 PM on AT&T Sports Network and i will have your post game recap on Tuesday morning.  Thanks for reading!!

The post Monday Morning Pens Report appeared first on Pittsburgh Sports Castle.