Pittsburgh Penguins v Florida Panthers Live

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While the offensive capabilities of Sydney Crosby and company have been discussed extensively, the Pittsburgh Penguins seemed to feed off the excellent performance of their defensive lines in the first three weeks of play. Being at the top of the Eastern Conference, the Penguins are confidently awaiting the Florida Panthers at Mellon Arena on Friday at 11:30 p.m. GMT.

With four losses in six games, the Panthers obviously came short of their goal to get into the playoff race right from the start of the season. Even though the squad of coach Peter DeBoer snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win versus the Philadelphia Flyers, there are still many issues that have to be addressed. More specifically, the team around Stephen Weiss and Cory Stillman allowed 3.6 goals per game while they struggled to find the net on the other end of the ice.

The Pittsburgh Penguins on the other hand got off to a great start and lead the Eastern Conference with an impressive 7-1-0 record. Unsurprisingly, NHL All-Stars Evgeni Malkin and Sydney Crosby led the Pittsburgh Penguins offensively with ten points and seven points respectively. However, the primary reason for their success appears to be their defensive improvements compared to last years NHL campaign. In fact, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury only allowed 2.10 goals per contest and put up a .922 save percentage. Likewise, the Penguins’ defensive lines deserve a lot of credit for limiting their opponents to just 25 shots per game. Taking the aforementioned circumstances into account, the Florida Panthers will most likely have to pray for a miracle to avoid dropping their fifth game of the season at Mellon Arena on Saturday night.

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