The Penguins are the NHL's most decorated team the past two seasons, notably the first club in nearly 20 years to capture consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
About the only thing they haven't accomplished is, um, beat the Flames?
You'd have to go back three years and 27 days, back to the Mike Johnston era, since a 4-0 home win Feb. 6, 2015, after which they're 0-2-3 against Calgary. That includes a spirited 2-1 loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Nov. 2, when Mike Smith dominated in goal with 43 saves and Mark Giordano scored at 2:19 of overtime:
That was part of a 1-3-1 Western trip, but the tables have turned since then. The Flames have lost three in a row and six of their last eight entering tonight's game. As they begin a three-game road trip that will take them to Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Ottawa, the Flames sit in 11th place in the Western Conference and four points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.
Or as Giordano put it, "This is our season coming up. We have to find a way to get points in these games coming up here."
1. Johnny be really good.
The Penguins have faced Johnny Gaudreau seven times, and he's certainly done damage, registering four goals and six points. But they've never faced him quite like this.
In his fourth NHL season, Gaudreau is averaging 1.11 points per game and ranks ninth in the NHL's scoring race with 73 points, trailing the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov by 12 points.
Few players have benefited more than Gaudreau from the league's crackdown on slashing and hooking. The 5-foot-9, 157-pound wisp is a magician on skates and is well worth the price of admission alone. He is fast, he's shifty, he can distribute the puck -- he's fourth in assists with 53 -- as well as score.
And he'll be reunited with left wing Micheal Ferland, who's missed the past four games with an upper body injury. Not coincidentally, Gaudreau didn't record a point and top-line center Sean Monahan, who leads the league with 11 game-winners, had just one goal without Ferland.
When they are on their game, Calgary's top line is formidable as Tristan Jarry found out in November when Gaudreau set up Monahan for this power-play goal:
Though Mike Sullivan is not a big matchup coach, expect the Penguins to pay a little extra attention to Gaudreau.
"He's got a lot of speed, got really good vision and playmaking ability and good hands," said Jamie Oleksiak, who faced the Flames often while playing in Dallas. "You want to definitely get a chip on him, a body, and not let him have too much ice to work with. Just make it a difficult game is the key for a little guy like that."
2. Stay disciplined.
There is no rivalry to speak of between the Penguins and Flames, who play just twice a year. But it doesn't take long to grow an intense dislike for Calgary left wing Matthew Tkachuk.
The 20-year-old son of former NHL star Keith Tkachuk is a throwback to a different era. He's a fearless, fiery, grating agitator who lives to get under the skin of opponents whether a superstar like Drew Doughty or a fourth-line plug. He's also very good at his job. He's scored 24 goals this season, second on the Flames, and he leads the NHL in penalties drawn with 36, according to CorsicaHockey.com. For comparison's sake, the Capitals' Tom Wilson is second with 32 while Evgeni Malkin leads the Penguins with 20.
The Flames are the NHL's second-most penalized team (295) and average 11:38 PIMs per game. If the Flames give the Penguins -- the NHL's top-ranked power play, converting at 26.7 percent -- 11 minutes with the man advantage, they should find success against Calgary's 16th-ranked penalty kill (80.4).
3. Young goalies.
It would seem highly doubtful that Matt Murray starts in goal just a week removed from suffering a concussion. Murray has been skating on his own but has yet to take part in a full practice. The Penguins had a day off on Sunday. Coming off a 25-save -- on 27 shots -- performance in Saturday night's win over the Islanders, Jarry is likely to make the 21st start of his career. And that makes him the senior goalie in uniform tonight.
Calgary will definitely be without Smith, who isn't making the trip because of a lower-body injury that's cost him the past 10 games. And in those 10 games, with David Rittich and Jon Gillies taking his place, the Flames are 3-6-1 with an .885 save percentage, just .878 at even-strength.
With their season on the line, expect the Flames to tighten up defensively and rally around their goalie.
On Saturday the Penguins needed 50 shots and overtime to beat the Islanders' Christopher Gibson, who was making his season debut after two years out of the league. And that was against a team allowing a league-high 35.9 shots and 3.56 goals against per game. Whether it's Rittich or Gillies in goal, Calgary is much better defensively, allowing 2.88 goals against and 31.9 shots against per game.