Who: Utah Mammoth (15-15-5, 33 factors, fifth place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (14-8-8, 36 factors, sixth place Metropolitan Division)
The right way to Watch: Broadcast domestically Sportsnet Pittsburgh, Utah16, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Forward: Connor McDavid and Edmonton come to city on Tuesday after which the Pens hit the street to play in Ottawa on Thursday. Then subsequent weekend will likely be Canadien-centric with a recreation in Montreal subsequent Saturday (12/20) after which MTL/PIT rematch on Sunday 12/21 in Pittsburgh.
Opponent Observe: The Mammoth have been final in motion Friday at residence successful 5-3 in opposition to Seattle. Previous to that that they had misplaced three straight video games, nevertheless. Tonight is the beginning of the on the street with stops arising in Boston and Detroit.
Season Collection: The Pens take their journey out to Utah on March 14th.
Hidden Stat: Utah is 1-0 all-time in Pittsburgh, having gained 6-1 final November within the franchise’s solely recreation beneath this iteration.
Attending to know the Mammoth
Clayton Keller – Nick Schmaltz – JJ Peterka
Lawson Crouse – Barrett Hayton – Dylan Guenther
Michael Carcone – Jack McBain – Danil However
Liam O’Brien – Kevin Stenlund – Kailer Yamamoto
Mikhail Sergachev / Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt / John Marino
Goalies: Karel Vejmelka and Vitek Vanecek
Potential scratches: Kevin Rooney, Nick DeSimone
Injured Reserve: Logan Cooley, Alex Kerfoot, Juuso Valimaki
- Powerful break for Sidney Crosby Little Penguin alum Cooley to harm his leg final week crashing right into a purpose submit. He’s out a minimal of eight weeks, which that appeared prefer it might have been quite a bit worse if that’s about all it’s.
- That protection has a variety of “hey, I do know him” names on it.
- All Czech goalie crease? That’s a rarity.
- Utah was doing nice on the harm entrance till Cooley went down, barely any of their key gamers have missed time in any respect earlier than that time apart from that incident and Durzi lacking a bit of the 12 months and Kerfoot out for all of it to date. 11 of their gamers nonetheless have excellent attendance this deep into the season, that’s no small feat with harm time going up throughout the league this 12 months.
- Cool to see 34-year outdated Andrew Agozzino (who performed 17 NHL video games in Pittsburgh in 2019-20) nonetheless kcking round. He’s not on the NHL stage at the moment.
- Tanev has an excellent agent and status to get multi-year contracts deep into his 30’s.
Key matchup: Utah offense vs. Pittsburgh protection
This is able to be an enormous pink blinking warning mild even when the Pens didn’t blow an enormous lead yesterday and head into at present with an unknown and unsure state, whereas the Mammoth didn’t play yesterday. Utah is a superb 5v5 offensive ream, they generate a ton. In addition they have the speedy forwards that may exploit the weaknesses of the Pens’ protection: Dylan Guenther scored two targets and added an help in his lone recreation in opposition to Pittsburgh final season. JJ Peterka is one other gifted offensive participant with unimaginable wheels, he scored two targets over three video games final season vs PIT (whereas with Buffalo). Clayton Keller collected three assists within the two video games in opposition to the Pens final 12 months.
One other “be careful for Guenther” section
Guenther has 4 targets in three video games since Cooley has gone down. He was large in opposition to Seattle on Friday evening.
“He’s been nice,” Nick Schmaltz stated. “He’s certainly one of our greatest gamers, he makes a ton of performs, he scores a variety of large targets for us.”
“We’re completely satisfied to have him. I feel he’s been nice for us all 12 months.”
It could be Guenther’s two-goal, three level recreation final 12 months in PPG Paints Enviornment, however significantly. Circle No. 11 on the board, underline it, daring it and ensure he’s accounted for as a lot as potential. Simpler stated than executed, after all, however that is the participant that would wreck the sport if he’s allowed to do it.
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Rutger McGroarty – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau
Ville Koivunen – Tommy Novak – Anthony Mantha
Connor Dewar – Kevin Hayes – Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov?
Potential Scratches: Danton Heinen, Jack St. Ivany
IR: Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones
- It stays unknown if Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak can get their visa state of affairs squared away in time to affix up for at present’s recreation. Murashov was recalled beneath the emergency circumstances to get on the roster, he’s free for use at any time (simply needs to be returned to the AHL as soon as the emergency has subsided and Skinner rejoins the crew).
- The IR checklist is getting notably shorter in latest days, not less than. Malkin’s absence has been felt, although Rakell’s return not less than supplies a trickle down impact to create a reasonably formidable group on paper in comparison with a few of the lineups over the previous few weeks.
- The crew might effectively select to have Crosby, Malkin and Kindel on three completely different traces when all are wholesome on the similar time, however it appears a straightforward prediction to make that Kindel gained’t be enjoying on a 3rd line for very for much longer. Sooner or later it would make sense to “Jordan Staal age-18” Kindel and put him on a scoring line as a winger contemplating he positively is without doubt one of the crew’s greatest six forwards.
- This may very well be a hazard recreation for the Pens, based mostly on frittering away a 5-1 third interval lead in a historic trend. There’s a nasty latest precedent, earlier this week when Pittsburgh blew the Anaheim recreation by conceding the tying purpose with 0.1 seconds left they ended up beginning sluggish and dropping 4-2 to Montreal as a comply with up. It’ll be fascinating to see if they will scrub the recollections of their newest blown lead however that’s usually a tough factor to immediately transfer on from.
Dan Muse has an enormous drawback on his fingers in relation to determining easy methods to get his crew to carry out for full video games. Given the condensed schedule, they’re going to should try to determine it out on the fly. In a method they’re left making an attempt to complete constructing the plane whereas it’s already within the air, however such is life in an 82-game NHL season. How the rookie coach is ready to deal with this second might go a good distance in defining how the season goes.
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