Who: St. Louis Blues (3-4-1, 7 points, 7th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (6-2-1, 13 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)
How to Watch: Broadcast in the local markets on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sportsnet Midwest, national game on NHL Network
Pens’ Path Ahead: It’s a quick turn to head to Philadelphia to play the Flyers tomorrow and then the Pens will stay on the road for matchups in Minnesota (Thursday), Winnipeg (Saturday) and Toronto (next Monday).
Opponent Track: The Blues have been flat to start the season, they’ve lost three straight (0-2-1) including a 6-4 loss in Detroit on Saturday in their last game where St. Louis had a 4-0 lead before giving up six straight goals. In their last five, STL is just 1-3-1.
Season Series: Pittsburgh doesn’t head out to the Lou until way out on April 14, which will be the final game of the regular season. Last year the Pens sported a 1-0-1 record against the Blues.
Hidden Stat: Through nine games this season, the Penguins have only been trailing one time after two periods, where they ended up losing 6-1 to the Rangers. (They’ve been ahead four times and tied in the four other games).
Getting to know the Blues
Jake Neighbours – Robert Thomas* – Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Pavel Buchnevich – Pius Suter – Nathan Walker
Dylan Holloway – Oskar Sundqvist – Nick Bjugstad
Cam Fowler / Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg / Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker / Matthew Kessel
Goalies: Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer
Potential scratches: Alex Texier, Alexey Toropchenko, Logan Mailloux
Injured reserve: Torey Krug
- *Thomas left Saturday night’s game against Detroit with an injury and did not return. We’ll see what his immediate future holds, would be a major loss on the depth chart if the Blues have to play without their top center in this game.
- Even independent of Thomas’s status, there could be some changes based on the disappointment of blowing a 4-0 lead in the last game. As you could have guessed, not too many happy faces for the Blues after Saturday and they’ll be looking to bounce-back from that poor performance last time out with a better effort against the Penguins.
- Jake Neighbours/Jimmy Snuggerud level players are probably what the Pens are hoping Rutger McGroarty can turn into (which is kind of an ironic statement since Snuggerud was drafted a few picks after McGroarty and they played on many of the same US teams growing up). STL always seems to have those type of blue collar, hard-working guys.
- Jordan Kyrou’s point totals in his last four seasons: 75, 73,67, 70. There are other stars around the league with higher ceilings but his consistency is right there on point to know what you’re going to get from him year in and year out.
- Curious start for Jordan Binnington, he’s got to be one of the most variable and unpredictable players in the whole league as far as what he’s going to do from even game to game. He’s a gamer and finds way to play well in the bright spotlights but that apparently isn’t regular season hockey in October.
Projected lines (from yesterday’s practice)
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
Matt Dumba / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Philip Tomasino, Harrison Brunicke
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)
- Ville Koivunen scored an OT goal in Charlotte on Saturday night for Wilkes-Barre and found himself back in Pittsburgh for practice on Sunday. Life can move fast at that level. Koivunen ripped up the AHL by scoring 11 points in six games, drawing back into the big league to help fill the hole in the lineup created by Rakell going to IR.
- Ben Kindel worked with the top power play, if you needed any further signs that he definitely is going to play over 10 NHL games this season. Mantha was there in a pinch during last game. Kindel can play the left side with his right shot and have a lot to look at with Crosby and Malkin to work off of. Should be fun.
Game focus: Pittsburgh power play vs St. Louis penalty kill
This focus could easily extend out a little further to Pittsburgh finishing (hot!) versus STL goaltending (not!), but we’ll zero in a closer on the special teams component for today’s key.
The Blues rank 24th with only a 72.0% penalty kill this season — but they at least have only been shorthanded 25 times in their eight games to mitigate that weakness by staying out of the penalty box. They’d be well-served to continue that trend and stay out of the box tonight, the Pittsburgh power play is scorching hot having scored on 5/10 opportunities in the last three games.
The Pens have gotten some great goaltending lately and been heavily out-shot in recent games, but the stats say that St. Louis should be an opponent they can step up against. The Blues have had a ton of trouble keeping the puck out of their own net.
