It is another night of late night Penguin hockey!
Greetings and solutations my friends, and welcome to another Big Daves Pens Pregame.
Tonight, our Penguins are in California to face one of the best in the west, Ryan Getzlaf and the Anaheim Ducks. Tonight is the second and final matchup between these two teams during the regular season.
So without any further delays, let's jump into tonight's game.
Tonight's game night song come from one of the greatest bands in the last 20 years. One of my absolute favorites growing up and they are from California so it was only appropriate. Off their latest album "Neighborhoods," Blink-182's "After Midnight."
The State of the Penguins
I cannot say Wednesday night's loss to the Avalanche was a complete shock. I expected some growing pains with the new additions to the defensive corps. That being said, it was far from one of the Pens best games. They were very lethargic, not creating a lot of opportunities throughout the 60 minute contest that saw former Penguin Jarome Iginla and phenom Nathan MacKinnon notch goals for the Avs.
Despite the loss, there are some things to take out of the game. Lovejoy played pretty well with Derrick Pouliot for one. The Trib's Josh Yohe tweeted before the game that Pouliot is very similar to Anaheim's Cam Fowler, Lovejoy's former partner in crime. After some struggles on the opening shift, the two of them got more settled and played well.
Secondly, Ian Cole is a very good pick up. All I read about him during the game was how good a skater he was. That is true, and an asset for a pairing that includes the rather slow-footed Rob Scuderi. I also like the physicality with which he played. He had four hits in the game, three blocked shots and his defensive play is, in my opinion, miles beyond where Bortuzzo was.
Finally, Evgeni Malkin is on a roll right now. He scored the only goal in the loss to the Avs, but he has put up 11 points (5G-6A) in his last five games. Geno currently sits just two points behind the league points lead and is on the verge of fulfilling my prediction that he would win the Art Ross.
Tonight, the Pens look to build off the positives from their loss against the Avs as they continue their west coast swing. The Ducks of Anaheim are their opponents tonight.
The Mighty, Mighty Ducks
Despite an opening night shallacking by the Penguins, the Anaheim Ducks are in their usual place atop the Western Conference standings. Anaheim has gotten great play and plenty of wins despite the revolving door of goaltenders on the back end. Despite early struggles, Pittsburgh native John Gibson is back with the big club and Frederik Andersen has led the way in net.
The Ducks were busy as the deadline approached as well, making six deals in the before Monday's 3pm deadline. Their deals are as follows:
- D Korbinian Holzer from Toronto for D Eric Brewer and a 2016 5th round pick.
- D James Wisniewski and a 2015 3rd rounder from Columbus for forwards Rene Bourque and William Karlsson and a 2015 2nd round pick.
- F Michael Sgarboss and a 2015 conditional 7th round pick from Colorado for D Mat Clark.
- F Tomas Fleishmchmann from Florida for F Dany Heatley and 2015 3rd round pick.
- F Jiri Sekac from Montreal for F Devante Smith-Pelly
- D Simon Despres from Pittsburgh for D Ben Lovejoy.
The Ducks were looking to add defense at the deadline just as the Pens were. One of their deals sent Ben Lovejoy to us for Simon Despres. Despres has played two games already for the Ducks and will play his third tonight. In two games with Anaheim, he has an assist, +4 rating and averaging 20:45 per game in a top four role. He will look to make the Pens look silly for trading him tonight and the Ducks will look for their 5th consecutive win.
On the Ducks:
- 42-17-7 overall on the season. Good for 91 points and 1st place in both the Pacific Division and the Western Conference.
- The Ducks have won 4 straight and 7 of their last 10. (7-3-0 in last 10 games).
- The are lethal on home ice, going 22-9-3 at home.
- Second and final regular season matchup with Pittsburgh (Lost 6-4 to the Pens on opening night at Consol).
- Ducks have lost 7 of their last 9 games to the Penguins.
Anaheim Scoring Leaders:
- C. Ryan Getzlaf - 61pts
- W. Corey Perry - 45pts
- C. Ryan Kesler - 41pts
- D. Sami Vatanen - 34pts
- W. Matt Belesky - 30pts
- W. Jakob Silfverberg - 30pts
Injury List:
The Ducks will be without several players tonight, including two of their deadline acquisitions
- D James Wisniewski is OUT tonight as he recovers from a bone bruise. He is expected to return and make his Duck debut next week.
- D Korbinian Holzer, also acquired at the deadline, is OUT tonight as he deals with a concussion.
- D Sami Vatanen (lower-body injury) is out 4-6 weeks.
- W Matt Belesky (shoulder) is a game-tjme decision tonight. He has missed a few games with that shoulder ailment.
- W Tim Jackman (lower-body injury) is out 4-6 weeks
Anaheim Line Combos:
- Kyle Palmeri - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
- Tomas Fleischmann - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg
- Emerson Artem - Rickard Rakell - Jiri Sekac
- Andrew Cogliano - Nate Thompson - Patrick Maroon
Anaheim Defensive Pairs:
- Hampus Lindholm - Francois Beauchemin
- Simon Despres - Cam Folwer
- Clayton Stoner - Josh Manson
Frederik Andersen is expected to start in net.
News & Notes
Two Penguins will be playing in milestone games tonight, ironically both will be doing so against their former team:
- Ben Lovejoy will play in his 100th career game with the Penguins tonight.
- Chris Kunitz will play in his 400th game with Pittsburgh tonight.
Christian Ehrhoff skated again this morning with the team but appears he will NOT return tonight. Ehrhoff is recovering from a recurrence of concussion symptoms.
Greiss was the first goalie off the ice, so it appears the Vezina candidate Marc-Andre Fleury will have a night off. Remember, Pens play in LA tomorrow night.
Appears Beau Bennett will be the #PressBoxHero tonight.
Projected LInes & Pairs
The Pittsburgh lines and pairs appear to be the same as they were v. Colorado on Wednesday. Here they are...
Lines:
1. David Perron - Sidney Crosby - Patric Hornqvist
2. Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - Blake Comeau
3. Daniel Winnik - Brandon Sutter - Steve Downie
4. Nick Spaling - Max Lapierre - Craig Adams
Pairs:
1. Kris Letang - Paul Martin
2. Rob Scuderi - Ian Cole
3. Ben Lovejoy - Derrick Pouliot
Thomas Greiss will get the start in net for the Pens tonight.
My Keys to the Game
1. Defensive Chemistry: It got better as the game went on on Wednesday, but there is still room for improvement. Plus, this is not a down and out team. They will need to be more on top of that if they hope to win.
2. Power Play: the power play was anemic again the other night and giving up shorthanded chances. The Ducks penalty killers include two of their top scorers, so maintaining zone time and possession will be key. Oh, and scoring one or two goals would be nice too.
3. Shot Volume: the Pens whooped the Ducks opening night by constantly peppering the net and getting quality shots off. Since then, it's been hit or miss in that area. The Pens need to shoot the puck more, but more importantly they need to stop shooting at the goalie's chest. Unless they have some sort of high calibre lethal power, shooting at their chest won't lead to goals.
My 3 Players to Watch
1. Sidney Crosby: I cannot remember a time when Sid has been so hot and cold. Frankly, I can't remember a time when he's been cold, period. His bad is still better than most's good, but Sid needs to be better, and I think we are all in agreement about that.
2. Brandon Sutter: speaking of playing better, that's something Brandon Sutter needs to do too. His defensive play hasn't dipped, but he has gone stone cold when it comes to offense. He seems to lack the confidence there, but hopefully he can rediscover it and soon.
3. Ian Cole: he wasn't in my pervious key players, and he played well. I like the game he plays, and he's definitely more polished than Bortuzzo. Id like to see him get more comfortable with Scuderi, in case the two end up being the final pair come spring.
Closing Thoughts
It's a 10pm puck drop for the game tonight.
The game can be caught on ROOT Sports tonight. Pregame starts at 930.
There will be two Pens Points codes available. Be sure to check out twitter for them.
No Pregame from me tomorrow night.
That will do it for me. I hope you enjoyed the show. Enjoy the game and have a good weekend! LETS GO PENS!!!