Who: Minnesota Wild (10-7-4, 24 points, 5th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (10-5-4, 24 points, 4th place Metropolitan Division)
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Fanduel Sports Network North, nationally on NHL Network
Pens’ Path Ahead: The uneven schedule continues, the Pens are right back in action tomorrow night at home against Seattle. Then they get three days off to prepare for the start of a very active stretch; three games in four days next week (BUF on Wednesday, @CBJ on Friday, TOR on Saturday) and then get ready to roll into an active December that will see them play 12 games in the 23 days before Christmas.
Opponent Track: It’s been a great November for the Wild so far, they’re 7-1-1 on the month, They’re on a three-game winning streak having beaten Carolina in that shootout on Wednesday and 5-0-1 in the previous six games. After tonight Minnesota stays on the road for a game against Winnipeg on Sunday.
Season Series: Pittsburgh won the first matchup 4-1 back on October 30th. Shea, Rust, Kindel and Mantha lit the lamp for the Pens in that game, Tristan Jarry stopped 26/27 Minnesota shots.
Hidden Stat: Might not be a good night for the power plays; in nine games of November, the Wild have only given up three goals when shorthanded (and scored once while down a player)….In Pittsburgh’s seven November games, they’ve only given up a single goal to the opposition’s PK.
Kirill Kaprizov – Danila Yurov – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno – Yakov Trenin – Vinnie Hinostroza
Liam Ohgren – Ben Jones – Tyler Pitlick
Jonas Brodin / Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton / Jared Spurgeon
Goalies: Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson
Potential scratches: Hunter Haight, David Jiricek, Stevie Leskovar
Injured Reserve: Ryan Hartman, Marco Rossi, Zach Bogosian, Nico Sturm, Vladimir Tarasenko
- There’s been some IR movement from a couple of weeks ago during the last MIN/PIT game; Zuccarello is back from IR but Hartman, Tarasenko and Rossi have made their way to the injury bay since the last team Pittsburgh has seen the Wild.
- The top two lines have been putting in work since Zuccarello’s return six games ago. Between Boldy and Kaprizov both of the scoring lines have balance and power, capable of scoring and providing the offense that a team needs to win games.
- Heat check alert: Boldy has four goals in the last five games, Zuccarello has four assists in the last five.
- It’s always funny (when it’s not your team at least) when the goalie who gets paid a lot of money ends up performing worse than the other goalie on the team. Such is the case so far with Minnesota locking in Gustavsson ($6.8m cap hit starting next year) compared to the youngster in Wallstedt who looks to be living up to his potential as one of the top prospect goalies over the past few years. I’m sure they don’t regret it yet or anything but that quirk always seems to pop up.
Connor Dewar – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Kevin Hayes – Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Mantha
Tommy Novak – Ben Kindel – Sam Poulin
Joona Koppanen – Blake Lizotte – Danton Heinen
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Matt Dumba, Harrison Brunicke, Philip Tomasino
IR: Ville Koivunen, Filip Hallander, Tristan Jarry, Justin Brazeau, Jack St. Ivany, Rickard Rakell (hand), Caleb Jones, Noel Acciari
The Pens’ 2019 first round pick has failed to make a major NHL mark (13 games split across the last three seasons, no goals and two assists). He’s become one heck of an AHL player, producing 15 points in 16 games this fall for Wilkes-Barre.
The arrow is pointing up for him on his latest recall to the show. Poulin is looking to bring his energy and optimism back for this latest chance.
The Pens had a week to get re-acclimated to the Eastern time zone and had some time on the ice to iron out finer details of the game.
The team also spent some time working on 3v3 situations and on the shootout, two weaker but important areas if a game gets to that point. We’ll see if some of those efforts pay off tonight.
