The Pittsburgh Penguins are expected to turn to Sergei Murashov against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night, with Dan Muse set to make the goalie decision official at 8 p.m. ET as Pittsburgh tries to stop a slide that has left it 3-4-1.
That is the kind of call that matters now because the Penguins are finishing the second half of back-to-backs at T-Mobile Arena, and they are doing it against a Vegas team that arrived at 7-2-0. The Golden Knights have been one of the NHL's best early teams, while Pittsburgh has not won in regulation since the first game of the season. The contrast is why the Penguins Vs Golden Knights matchup has become more than a routine road game.
Murashov would be stepping into a game with plenty of weight behind it. The Penguins have lost four of their last six and are trying to steady a stretch in which they have given away leads, goals and games. On Friday, they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Colorado Avalanche after going up 2-0, even after Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust scored 29 seconds apart in the first period. That loss only sharpened the need for a clean night in goal on Saturday.
There is also the matter of what has been missing from the lineup. Egor Chinakhov missed Friday's game while being evaluated for a lower-body injury, leaving another question hanging over a roster already under pressure. Dan Muse can make the goalie choice official at 8 p.m. ET, but the larger issue is whether Pittsburgh can give Murashov a game structure that actually supports him.
The matchup still carries an odd edge because the Penguins have usually handled Vegas well. They have won seven of their last 11 games against the Golden Knights dating to Jan. 7, 2020, and they had never lost a season series to Vegas before this trip. Sidney Crosby has 12 points in 13 games against Vegas, including a two-goal performance last March, and Kris Letang has seven assists in his last nine games versus the Golden Knights. But those numbers matter less if Pittsburgh cannot defend its own end with any consistency. Its power play is at 14.8 percent and its penalty kill is 87 percent, decent enough to compete, not enough to cover a slump if the mistakes keep coming.
Vegas offered its own warning sign on Thursday, beating the Calgary Flames 6-2 with Brett Howden scoring 25 seconds into the game, Jack Eichel adding a short-handed goal, Braeden Bowman scoring on the power play and Mark Stone finishing with a third-period hat trick. That is the form Murashov would face in his first likely start under this kind of spotlight. If the Penguins leave Las Vegas still searching for a regulation win, the goalie decision will not be the story. The stretch around it will be.
