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Pittsburgh Penguins (11-5-0 22 points) at St. Louis Blues (10-2-2 22 points) 8:00 PM EST at Scottrade Center
Tonight’s matchup pits two very strong teams who both have realistic aspirations of winning the Stanley Cup. The St. Louis Blues have been a team on the rise for a number of years and this very well could be the year they truly arrive and make a deep run. They have enough offense, the defense corp. is solid and they have two very capable goaltenders in Halak and Elliott. Topping things off is the man who leads the Blues, Ken Hitchcock. Hitchcock teams are very defensively responsible and his time in St. Louis has not been an exception to the rule.
This game also features the NHL leader in points (Sidney Crosby 23 points) and the NHL leader in goals (Alexander Steen 14 goals).
Alexander Steen is a guy who is incredibly talented and smart on the ice. He has always been a solid player who put up decent enough offensive numbers. This year the puck luck is on his side and that talent has been given the spotlight it deserves.
Eventually his goal scoring will slow down, it always does, even for the great goal scorers.
Adam Gretz of SB Nation has a very nice breakdown of goal scoring slumps that have affected many of the NHL’s brightest stars.
As you already probably know, Malkin is currently in the middle of a 9 game goalless streak. As you can see from the chart, these things happen to EVERY big time goal scorer at some point. You will also see that it happens much less to Malkin than a lot of the other stars on this list.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have almost identical goal slump stats.
I am not all that worried about Malkin’s goal slump as much as I have been worried about who the Penguins have had to play with him on the right wing in the past month.
Fortunately those issues seem to be nearing a conclusion as Beau Bennett should be making his return to the lineup tonight and James Neal not far behind with a target date of later next week.
If we are still discussing a Malkin goal scoring slump in the middle of December, I would be completely shocked. Currently Alex Steen’s PDO is at 1060, Evgeni Malkin’s is at 977. Sometimes you either have the puck luck, or you don’t. The extremely scary thing is that Crosby’s PDO is currently at 975. Just wait until Sid gets some puck luck.
#Pens forward Joe Vitale had entire team,coaches, and trainers over to his house for traditional italian dinner last night
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) November 9, 2013
Good team bonding stuff on the road there.
Injuries
Paul Martin was not at the morning skate, he is not available for tonight's game per Dan Bylsma.
Pascal Dupuis left the game on Wednesday at the end of the 2nd period and did not return. His injury issue is unknown but is probable for tonight’s game.
Beau Bennett will be making his return to the lineup after missing 11 games.
James Neal has returned to practice. All signs point to him returning next week, great news.
No change in status for Tomas Vokoun, Rob Scuderi, or Chuck Kobasew
Brenden Morrow and Magnus Paajarvi are both on injured reserve for the Blues.
Jordan Leopold will miss tonight's game with a hand injury. He is day to day.
Power Play
Penguins power play is currently 9th overall in the league at 20.7%
The Blues are currently an impressive 3rd overall with 24.5%
The Penguins are 14th overall in power play opportunities with 58
The Blues are 22nd overall with 53
Very good chance we will see some power play goals tonight.
Penalty Kill
The Blues penalty kill is 13th overall at 83.3%
The Penguins penalty kill is 17th overall at 82.6%.
We have some average penalty kills going up against some top power plays tonight.
Fenclose%
The Penguins are at 57.0%. They dropped out of a 1st place tie with the Blackhawks after the Rangers game. Still pretty great to be 2nd overall.
The Blues are 7th overall at 54.2% which is the most impressive number the Penguins have faced so far this year. Its really no surprise to see the Blues up near the top considering how good their lineup is from top to bottom.
Even Strength Save %
The Penguins have slipped in the EVSV% rankings all the way to 24th with .914%. The Rangers game on Wednesday night did not do this stat any favors for the Penguins. Marc Andre Fleury was at .935% but is now at .922%.
The Blues are 10th overall with .927%. Jaroslav Halak is at .933% and Brian Elliott is at .919%.
Trends
Penguins are 4-1 in their last 5 vs. Central.
Penguins are 4-1 in their last 5 after allowing 5 goals or more in their previous game.
Blues are 4-0 in their last 4 when their opponent allows 5 goals or more in their previous game.
Blues are 5-1 in their last 6 overall
Penguins are 2-5 in the last 7 meetings in St. Louis
Stats courtesy of Covers.com
Line Combos
Updated Line Combos 1:00 PM
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis Jokinen-Malkin-Neal/Bennett Glass-Sutter-D'Agostini Adams-Vitale-Megna.
Engelland rotated with the D
Orpik- Martin NOT at morning skate Niskanen-Letang Maatta-Bortuzzo
1st Power Play
Neal/Kunitz-Crosby-Jokinen Letang-Malkin
2nd Power Play
D'Agostini-Sutter-Bennett Maatta-Niskanen
Projected lineup for the St. Louis Blues:
Steen-Backes-Oshie Roy-Sobotka-Stewart Schwartz-Berglund-Tarasenko Cracknell-Lapierre-Reaves
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo Jackman-Shattenkirk Cole-Polak
That forward depth is very impressive considering it is missing Brenden Morrow and Magnus Paajarvi
Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch has reported that Jordan Leopold is day to day with a hand injury and will miss tonight's game. Ian Cole is the replacement.
1st Power Play
Berglund-Backes-Oshie Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
2nd Power Play
Tarasenko-Roy-Stewart Steen-Shattenkirk
The Blues will provide the Penguins one of their strongest challenges that they have faced so far this season. The Penguins are going to have to show up with a much better effort than they did against the Rangers or that 5-1 loss could look like getting off easy.
Welcome back Beau
Thanks for reading!
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