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Pittsburgh Penguins: Lessons Learned vs. Ottawa

By Rob Joncas

PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 25: Bryan Rust #17 of the Pittsburgh Penguins takes a shot on Craig Anderson #41 of the Ottawa Senators in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG PAINTS Arena on May 25, 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 25: Bryan Rust #17 of the Pittsburgh Penguins takes a shot on Craig Anderson #41 of the Ottawa Senators in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG PAINTS Arena on May 25, 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) /
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The Pittsburgh Penguins hope to break out of their 6 game funk with a strong showing against an Ottawa team looking to add another loss to the Penguins pile.

The first game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators took place on Oct. 27, 1992. Kevin Stevens led Pittsburgh with four points, Ulf Samuelsson – 3 points, and Mario Lemieux – 2 points, helped the Penguins earn a 7-2 victory.

Season Series

The Penguins and Senators have played 104 games together since Ottawa joined the league in 1992. Pittsburgh holds the series lead with a record of 57-32-9-6 (32-13-4-3 at home)

Pittsburgh won the only other game between the clubs this season, by a score of 5-2 on Dec. 30, 2019. Following tonight’s match up the teams will meet once more on Apr. 4, 2020, in Ottawa.

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

The Penguins best game vs. Ottawa occurred on Dec. 23, 2009, an 8-2 Penguins win.

Bill Guerin led Pittsburgh scorers with 4 points, with Sidney Crosby, Sergei Gonchar, and Evgeni Malkin, each collecting three points.

The Senators best game vs. Pittsburgh occurred on Mar. 9, 2000, a 7-0 loss for the Penguins.

Daniel Alfredsson and Shawn McEachern each scored three points for Ottawa, as Patrick Lalime made 16 saves and earned the shutout against his former team.

Leading Scorers

Malkin has scored 23 goals and 45 points in 39 games played vs. Ottawa. Crosby in second place, has played one more game (40) and has scored 7 fewer goals (16) than Malkin, but has an identical point total (45).  Kris Letang – 18 points, Patric Hornqvist – 11 points, and Bryan Rust – 10 points, round out the Penguins top five scorers vs. the Senators.

Leading Goaltenders

Tristan Jarry leads the current Penguins goalies against the Senators. Jarry is 1-0-0 with a goals-against-average of 2.00. Casey DeSmith takes second with a record of 2-1-1 and a GAA of 2.20 with one shutout. Matt Murray rounds out the top three goalies with a record of 4-1-1 in 7 games played with a GAA of 2.68.

Franchise Killer

If you are an Ottawa Senators fan looking to select the exact moment when you knew things would never be the same for your franchise you’d probably select game 7 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals.

With birth to the Stanley Cup Finals on the line, the Penguins and Senators entered an anxiety-ridden second overtime frame to decide who would represent the Eastern Conference in the finals against Nashville.

A hero emerged for Pittsburgh in the form of forward Chris Kunitz, who had not scored a goal in 35 games dating back to Feb. of 2017.

Kunitz scored the first goal of the evening and bookend the evening, by delivering the final nail to the Senators championship aspirations at the 5:09 mark of the second overtime.

The Penguins would go on to capture their second consecutive title and Ottawa for all intents and purposes imploded and have experienced periods of extreme strife since their loss to Pittsburgh.

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