Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (7-2-2, 16 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division) @ Minnesota Wild (3-5-3, 9 points, 7th place Central Division)
How to Watch: Broadcast in the local markets on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sportsnet North, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: It’s on to Winnipeg (note the 3:00pm eastern start time) and then the Pens stay in Canada to play in Toronto on Monday night. After that is two days off before a meeting with Washington a week from tonight at PPG Paints.
Opponent Track: It’s been tough sledding lately, the Wild have only won one game in the last two weeks (1-4-3 in the last eight games) and still have two more games at home after tonight in the midst of a six game home-stand. So far on it they’ve lost to Utah on Saturday (6-2) and then dropped a pair of OT games on Sunday to the Sharks (6-5) and then Tuesday to the Jets (4-3).
Season Series: Minnesota makes the return trip to Pittsburgh in a few weeks on November 21st to finish out the season series. The teams split last season, the Pens won 3-1 last March in Minnesota but lost 5-3 to the Wild in Pittsburgh in October 2024.
Hidden Stat: The Wild are second in the NHL this season in time spent trailing during games, at 309:32 in 11 contests. Often times they have not caught back up, sporting a matching 0-5-1 record when trailing after the first and second periods.
Kirill Kaprizov – Marco Rossi – Marcus Johansson
Matt Boldy – Joel Eriksson Ek – Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno – Ryan Hartman – Vinnie Hinostroza
Yakov Trenin – Danila Yurov – Tyler Pitlick
Jonas Brodin / Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton / Tyler Spurgeon
Zeev Buium / David Jiricek
Goalies: Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt
Potential scratches: Ben Jones, Daemon Hunt, Zach Bogosian
Injured reserve: Mats Zuccarello, Nico Sturm
- A couple of interesting new faces for the Pens to see for the first time; this is the first season in America for Yurov, 21, who was a first round pick in 2022 (selected three picks after Owen Pickering). Yurov was with Evgeni Malkin’s hometown team Magnitogorsk prior to coming to the NHL…Buium, 19, is an electric defenseman where the sky looks like the limit and Minnesota was probably lucky he hung around until the 12th pick in the 2024 draft.
- Boldy would be a great pick for “sleeper player that might see their Q rating explode after the 2026 Olympics”. He had some moments for Team USA at the Four Nations earlier this year and ought to be positioned for something of a star turn if he plays up to his capabilities.
- Hot streak warning: veteran Marcus Johansson has four goals in the last five games. Zuccarello serves as Kaprizov’s normal running buddy, but him being out hasn’t much hurt the production of the top line recently. Johansson isn’t an overwhelming player but manages to sneak in there as a supporting player and feed with the stars in this type of role.
- Nice to see a Hinostroza sighting and him still kicking around the NHL at age-31 and now on his eighth NHL team. If you had to go back in the memory banks and guess Hinostroza’s one season in the Pens’ organization, what year was it? No cheating. Can you believe it was 2023-24? If so, great recall for journeymen to stick in your head. You could have told me he was with the team as far back as 2019 and I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
- Kaprizov turned head by signing the biggest contract in NHL history for $136 million over eight years (which kicks in for next season) and has gotten off to his expected start with a bevy of points. He’s done well to produce seven ES points this season, and stayed above water with more goals for than goals allowed while on the ice at 5v5 and then has just feasted on the power play with 4 PPG and 8 overall points on the power play, which ranks second in the NHL behind Jack Eichel (9).
- On the flip side, former Pens draft pick Gustavsson earned himself a $34 million extension for five years ($6.8m cap hit) and it’s been tough going. At this point, that’s more on the Minnesota defense than it is the netminder (note the two goalies have essentially identical GAA’s, often cited as team input towards defense, and that number is very high) but he’ll surely be looking to settle in and return to form as quickly as possible.
- Spurgeon, the team captain, is off to an early lead for the informal green jacket award for the player with the worst plus/minus (and therefore, best golf score). Plus/minus has its problems and a lot is explained by the early season .879 PDO for Spurgeon, but it’s always eye catching to see a player as well-regarded at him get off to a start where there’s been 2 Goals For and 13 Goals Against with him on the ice at at 5v5.
- The Pens were reportedly interested in signing Tarasenko in the summer of 2024 though he opted to go with a different offer. That may be a blessing in disguise, Tarasenko, 33, has scored 12 goals in 91 games since the start of last season (he does have 26 assists, though) and is a far, far cry away from the player who regularly used to record 30+ goals in his prime.
Filip Hallander – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Evgeni Malkin – Justin Brazeau
Tommy Novak – Ben Kindel – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Owen Pickering / Matt Dumba
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Philip Tomasino, Harrison Brunicke, Connor Clifton
IR: Kevin Hayes (upper body), Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body), Rickard Rakell (hand, out 6-8 weeks), Caleb Jones (lower body, out 6-8 weeks)
- The Pens didn’t practice yesterday following their back-to-back on Sunday/Monday and the travel, so we’ll stick with the same lines as last game for this projection. Obviously subject to change depending on what the team decides to do on the blue line.
- Based on the rotation, it would be Jarry’s turn in net tonight. Jarry has won his last three starts and is sporting a 2.01 GAA and .938 save% in this span going back to October 18th.
- As if there was any question (and there shouldn’t have been), Crosby will not receive any further punishment from the NHL as a result of last game. The Pens’ captain picked up a misconduct for leaving the bench after the final whistle of the third period, presumably to talk to the refs in the middle of the goat rodeo that Trevor Zegras started. Crosby didn’t participate in anything physical and rightfully won’t be in the crosshairs for further league action. He was unavailable for the shootout due to the misconduct, which is a more than punitive result.
- Should Kindel dresses tonight he will play in his 10th NHL game and trigger the start of his entry level contract. At that point, there would be no contractual reason for the Pens to assign him back to his junior team until he approaches his 40th game played (which then counts as a season towards his unrestricted free agency), but the team could elect to return him to the WHL for on-ice reasons if they so chose. To this point, Kindel has remained one of the team’s more complete and consistent forwards.
Game focus: Keep on rolling
The bottom right bar is why a common reaction to the Penguins this season is “at least they’re fun to watch again this season”. Yeah, it’s fun when the goals against go way down and the offense picks it up. And that’s a 5v5 look that doesn’t even incorporate a mostly fine PK (outside of a couple rough games) and a productive power play.
The top right chart is possible the cause for concern when the goal share is way, way up (white line) even though they’re dancing through the raindrops without getting wet in terms of how the play has gone. Of course it’s refreshing to see a team convert on their chances while also getting quality goaltending, that makes for a beautiful brand of hockey.
The big question is can it last? The answer is uncertain, but a key indicator will be to track the veterans. They will tell you all you need to know. Sidney Crosby is staying productive, but there was a point last week where he scored goals on five straight shots, obviously that doesn’t last forever. Erik Karlsson has probably had about six or seven virtuoso performances and a handful of very poor ones, which version will show up? Evgeni Malkin was tied to the lead in assists and points as recently as Tuesday. If those three keep powering the team’s engine, they can win on any night. Whether or not some of them have the mental focus and physical stamina to keep it up at an advanced age might be a different story (and I think we all know that there’s minimal worry about Crosby in this regard..)
And, of course, the other big factor is goalie. Any time you’re talking about a top-5 goaltending team, you’re probably talking about a team that’s looking good in the standings. That certainly applies to the Penguins right now. The team didn’t really have much business in position to steal a win on Tuesday, except they were in that position mostly due to Arturs Silovs. Jarry has played equally as well. Given the state of the defense, that could be one of the more unexpected or surprising developments of the season so far. Quality goaltending will always even the playing field, though it is worth wondering if at some point the team will ask too much of the goalies. The Pens are allowing an average of 31.0 shots per game (fourth highest in the league). It wouldn’t hurt to stop that trend, though that could be a matter where best efforts of the skaters might not be capable of tightening things up.
