The Pittsburgh Penguins jump back into game action this evening against the Vancouver Canucks. Tonight’s matchup pits former Penguins center Brandon Sutter against his team for the first time.
So far on the surface it appears as though things are going predictable on the Sutter front.
He started the season with the Sedins and was a drag on them. This was similar to how he dragged Evgeni Malkin down. Dragging down multiple superstars (Malkin and Sedins) isn’t ideal.
Sutter’s dCorsi is also -3.62 in Vancouver. If this stays in the negative it will be the seventh time in eight years he has underperformed in the role he has been given.
He does have seven points which is two better than Sidney Crosby to this point.
Speaking of Sidney Crosby he makes his return to Vancouver which was the site of his 2010 Olympic Gold Medal winning goal in overtime. He will also be playing against the goaltender he scored that goal on, Ryan Miller. Ryan Miller has not classically fared well against Sidney Crosby so this might be a nice game for Sid to find the scoresheet again. Although it is worth noting that Ryan Miller shut the Penguins out in Vancouver 5-0 last year.
Penguins' PP1 refining 1-2-2 look. Letang point. Kessel left half-wall, Malkin right. Hornqvist net-front. Crosby to goalie's left/rover.
— Jason Mackey (@Mackey_Trib) November 3, 2015
This should have been the logical power play setup the second that Phil Kessel became a Penguin. We will see if this unit sticks to the formation in game play and if it will yield some better results. I tend to think that they will score more goals like this.
Adam Clendening makes his return to Vancouver and he was rotating in with Olli Maatta and Rob Scuderi while the other two pairings stayed the same (Cole/Letang, Dumoulin/Lovejoy).
Here are how the two teams shake out so far:
Lastly, Connor McDavid unfortunately suffered a serious upper body injury last night. It is believed to be a broken collarbone. That means he will not be in this week’s game against Pittsburgh. It also means he won’t be playing in Pittsburgh at the end of the month either. This is disappointing news all around. The Sidney Crosby/Connor McDavid matchup will have to wait until 2016-17.
Thanks for reading!