PITTSBURGH PENGUINS at WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Thursday, December 1, 2011, Verizon Center, 7 p.m.

BY THE NUMBERS 3,843,622: Total attendance during the Penguins active 221 game consecutive sellout streak (includes regular season and playoffs), which started Feb. 14, 2007 vs. Chicago. That averages out to 17,392 fans per game. 132,335: Number of votes Sidney Crosby received last week as part of NHL All-Star Fan Balloting presented by XM following his return from a 61game absence due to injury on Nov. 21. Crosbys surge gives him a cumulative total of 206,863 votes, placing him fourth among forwards, just 2,592 votes behind third-place Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators. 31: Number of third period goals for the Penguins this season, the third-highest total in the NHL. Pittsburgh has scored at least one goal in the final period in five straight games and 10 of its last 11 contests (17 goals total). 16: Number of points for Evgeni Malkin (7G-9A) in 12 games during the month of November, the third-highest total among all NHL players. Malkins scoring spree included points in five straight games to close out the month. 5: Consecutive games with a point against the Capitals for Evgeni Malkin. During that stretch Malkin has nine points (1G-8A). Malkin has tallied points in 14 of 17 career games against the Capitals. 2.6: Average number of points per game (13 points; 2G-9A) Pittsburghs defensemen have accumulated in five games since Sidney Crosbys return Nov. 21. In the first 20 games of the season without Crosby, the Penguins Dmen averaged 1.8 points per game (36 points; 6G-30A).
Pittsburgh and Washington possess some of the NHLs best players, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins and Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom of the Capitals. All four players have played some of their best hockey head-to-head against one another. In the 11 games that all four have been in the lineup at the same time, the Penguins have gone 5-5-1. Below are two charts breaking down each players performance against the other team:
CROSBY and MALKIN vs. WASHINGTON Crosby 21 13 22 35 1.67 13 19 Malkin 17 7 19 26 1.53 8 14

Games Played Goals Assists Points Points Per Game Multiple Point Games Games With At Least 1 Point

OVECHKIN and BACKSTROM vs. PITTSBURGH Ovechkin 25 19 14 33 1.32 8 18 Backstrom 17 1 23 24 1.41 7 13

Games Played Goals Assists Points Points Per Game Multiple Point Games Multiple Goal Games

Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is tied for the NHL lead with 13 victories. He enters tonights game with 197 career victories, leaving him three shy of hitting 200 for his career. Should Fleury (27 years, 2 days old) earn three wins within the next 23 days, he will become the fourth-youngest netminder to win 200 games during the Expansion Era (since 1967-68). Below are the four youngest NHL goaltenders to 200 wins since 67-68, and how many career wins each recorded (*Active):
Name Grant Fuhr Martin Brodeur Tom Barrasso Patrick Roy Marc-Andre Fleury Age at 200th Win 26 years, 122 days 26 years, 343 days 26 years, 354 days 27 years, 26 days Career Victories 403 630* 369 551 197

SOURCE Elias Sports Bureau

Pittsburgh is in the midst of its 10th stretch of four or more consecutive road games since Dan Bylsma took over as head coach on Feb.15, 2009. Pittsburgh has gone .500 or better in six of its first nine road stretches of four or more games. Those numbers include a perfect 5-0 mark in the first such stretch from Feb. 27-March 8, 2009. Pittsburgh also had a perfect 4-0 road trip Oct. 8-14, 2009. The Penguins have managed to go .500 or better in four of their last five trips of four or more games, a fact highlighted in the graph below (Current trip in bold):
Dates Nov. 26-Dec. 3, 2011 Feb. 25-March 5, 2011 Feb. 11-20, 2011 Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 2010 March 11-18, 2010 Jan. 11-16, 2010 # of Games 4 5 4 4 5 4 Record 1-1-0 2-1-2 1-2-1 2-2 2-2-1 2-2