Fresh off of their season opening win over the Washington Capitals the Penguins will once again play in front of the home crowd for a Saturday tilt against the Anaheim Ducks.
Here is to hoping a recent trend continues. The past two times Anaheim has visited Pittsburgh the Penguins have put up six goals in each contest. Pittsburgh native John Gibson has not had the homecomings that he probably envisioned. In those two games he has given up 12 goals on only 70 shots. He will not be given redemption this evening. Jonathan Bernier was the first player off the ice at practice for Anaheim this morning.
Anaheim was one of the best teams in the league last year. However, they lost another game seven due to bad goaltending and as a result felt the need to overreact. Instead of keeping around a coach with a huge sample size of being a positive influence they decided to move on to their former coach who has a huge sample size of sucking the life out of teams. Anaheim will be a very interesting team to track this year considering the vast differences between Bruce Boudreau and Randy Carlyle.
Helping out the Penguins cause tonight will be the absences of one of the best defenseman in the league. Hampus Lindholm remains without a contract. He will eventually get one but that doesn't change the fact he can't play tonight. There is a good chance that in the years to come that we will see Lindholm's name in and around the Norris discussion. That is how good he is. Big break for Pittsburgh.
Rickard Rakell will also miss tonight's game. He did sign a new extension however he needs to wait about a week in order to get his work visa. Rakell is also recovering from an appendectomy that kept him from competing in the World Cup of Hockey for Sweden.
The Penguins have a pair of former Ducks in their forwards ranks. Nick Bonino spent the first portion of his career with Anaheim
Bonino on his old Ducks teammates: "I still talk to them. They must have lost my number last night when they got into town" (laughs) -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 15, 2016
As did Chris Kunitz. Kunitz was a top six player during Anaheim's 2007 Stanley Cup run. Tonight Kunitz will mark his 500th game with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has been very good for his entire tenure with Pittsburgh. One of Ray Shero's best moves.
Edit: Sorry Carl I didn't mean to forget about you. Carl Hagelin makes for three former Duck forwards who are on the Penguins. Hagelin's time in Anaheim was rather forgettable so perhaps that was the reason for the oversight. Nobody has overlooked him during his Pittsburgh tenure.
Former Penguin Simon Despres will not play. He suffered a concussion last season that robbed him of 81 games last year. In Anaheim's season opener he left the game and did not play in the third period. It is believed to be related to that concussion.
Let's segue into other concussion news. Pittsburgh will most likely have the same lineup in place that they did opening night. Sidney Crosby has yet to take contact at practice so he will not be available this evening. Rumblings behind the scenes about his status have all been positive. The process is the process with concussions and we'll just have to let things continue to play out.
Sullivan said it was another positive day for Crosby, who has skated for six straight days after being diagnosed with a concussion.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) October 15, 2016
Although for Sid the Art Ross Trophy may have already been lost. That Connor McDavid dude has six points through the Oilers first two games and he isn't going to slow down. McDavid had a 5v5 points per 60 of 2.69 his rookie season which was second to only the legendary Jaromir Jagr at 2.70. The Oilers aren't good but this is like when the Penguins weren't good early in Crosby's career. It doesn't matter.
Tonight the Penguins will be honoring the legends of their first ten years
Good morning from @PPGPaintsArena, where the #Pens are joined by a few distinguished alumni for today’s skate. pic.twitter.com/1iDeV1v8rQ
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 15, 2016
Pittsburgh may be missing Crosby but the Ducks aren't at full capacity either. The Capitals held the flow of Thursday's game. If the Penguins want to keep racking up wins without Crosby they'll want to be the ones to dictate play. They have that opportunity tonight against a Randy Carlyle coached team.
Thanks for reading!