Western NY vs Western PA tonight on the ice
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (29-33-11, 69 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Buffalo Sabres (29-35-6, 64 points, 8th place Atlantic Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh area, MSG-B in the Buffalo market, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins return home after their road trip and get the odd FRI+SAT off this weekend. They’ll host Ottawa on Sunday (5:00pm local start) before a few more days off and the last extended road trip which starts next Thursday in St. Louis.
Opponent Track: The Sabres come into tonight on a two-game winning streak, having recently defeated Winnipeg on the road on Sunday (5-3) and then downing Ottawa at home on Tuesday night (3-2). While several of the bottom-feeders in the East have seemingly given up or simply lost a lot lately (CBJ, DET, BOS, PHI all between 1-8-1 and 3-7-0 in the last 10), that doesn’t apply to either team tonight. Buffalo is 5-5-0 in the last 10, the Pens are 5-4-1.
Season Series: Sidney Crosby had an OT goal (and 1,600th point) in the first game, where Evgeni Malkin also notched his 500th career games in Pittsburgh’s 6-5 win back on October 17th in one of the more fun and memorable games of the season. The Pens won the second matchup 5-2 in January, so Pittsburgh could clinch a season-sweep over BUF in today’s third and final meeting.
Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, the Penguins have scored three or more goals in nine of their last 11 games against Buffalo.
Trivia Question: Inspired by someone who recently joined this club (hint, hint) — who are the five Penguin players in the Crosby era (2005-current) who have scored at least three 25+ goal seasons (another hint that you don’t need: two of these are very obvious)…
Getting to know the Sabres
Projected lines (from Tuesday’s game)
FORWARDS
Zach Benson – Jiri Kulich – Tage Thompson
J.J. Peterka – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Jason Zucker – Peyton Krebs – Alex Tuch
Brock Malenstyn – Tyson Kozak – Isak Rosen
DEFENSEMEN
Matthias Samuelsson / Rasmus Dahlin
Bowen Bryam / Connor Clifton
Owen Power / Jacob Bernard-Docker
Goalies: James Reimer and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Scratches: Josh Norris (injury), Jordan Greenway, Sam Lafferty, Josh Dunne, Jacob Bryson
IR: None
—Norris’ career has been riddled with injuries and surgeries but Buffalo still decided to trade Dylan Cozens for him. So far that has gone exactly how everything has gone for Buffalo hockey in the last 15 years, poorly. Cozens has been injured more than he has been healthy in his short time with the Sabres.
—How can a team be 15 years into a rebuild and still so thin with right handed defensemen, center and goalie? (Guess trading for the injured Norris is one way). There’s a hundred different reasons for what had to happen and mis-steps along the way, the poor Sabres haven’t seemed to catch a break and have taken the mantle from Edmonton for the personification in the timeliness and pain that a strip down rebuild can bring with it.
Player stats
(via hockeydb)
—Peterka has had a breakout season, so of course he was in trade rumors. Fortunately Buffalo didn’t trade him this time around, which considering how many players they have dealt away is never a given. Buffalo has traded top-10 picks already over the last decade, and sometimes very quickly from 2022 (Matthew Savoie), 2019 (Cozens), 2017 (Casey Mittlestadt), 2016 (Alex Nylander) and 2015 (Jack Eichel), 2014 (Sam Reinhart), So you can’t blame teams for targeting top young players, it’s not like Buffalo hasn’t given them up in deals quickly before.
—I’m as guilty as anyone of thinking Levi was going to be the answer in net after starring in the World Juniors and at the college level. Now 23 and a few years into his career, ehh, not so confident. His stats in the AHL are very nice, at least.
Lindy trying to get it right
Lindy Ruff is Buffalo hockey. Drafted by the Sabres in 1979, he spent a decade there as a player. Then he was the head coach from 1997-2013, returning this season after about a decade away in other places. It hasn’t gone as he has hoped:
“I’m a guy that from Day 1, I always think I can fix everything,” Ruff said. “I haven’t been able to fix everything. This year has been a disappointment for me from Day 1.”
The Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 on Tuesday night, and Ruff, 65, became just the second coach in NHL history to have at least 600 regular-season wins with one team. But the hope when Ruff came back to coach the Sabres this season was that he would hit this mark a bit sooner. He didn’t expect to be coaching a team that’s 29th in the NHL in points percentage. The Sabres were only one season into this league-record playoff drought when Ruff was fired by the Sabres 17 games into the 2012-13 season. He came back to a franchise that has a lot of baggage, and fixing it hasn’t been simple.
“I really want to get this right,” Ruff said when asked about the possibility of returning to coach the Sabres next season.
Can he fix it next year? Will he get the chance? The Sabres are understandably beyond frustrated with the overly-long period of being an noncompetitive, rebuilding team. Sadly and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’re all that close to breaking out of last place in the near future.
It’s hard not to have a soft spot for Ruff – he’s been an assistant or head coach in the NHL since 1993-94 in some form or another (save the 2004-05 lockout). The guy has been around the block. Can he achieve some late-career success by bringing back the team he’s been associated with so long? If life always had endings like a movie, it would happen. Unfortunately based on what’s happened so far, the feel good ending might not be in the cards.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Boko Imama – Joona Koppanen – Emil Bemstrom
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Erik Karlsson / Conor Timmins
Ryan Graves / Vladislav Kolyachonok
Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea (upper body injury), Tommy Novak (lower body), Evgeni Malkin (day-to-day upper body injury)
Injured Reserve: P.O. Joseph (upper body)
—Malkin was on ice yesterday in Tampa for practice in a no-contact jersey. Coach Mike Sullivan said, “it’s probably too early to say” if Malkin could play today, so who knows!
Crosby’s moderately big night?
To me it’s more of an achievement than actual “record” but Crosby will surpass Wayne Gretzky’s mark with 20 seasons of point per game play. Crosby is on a current eight-game point streak and they are piling up for him right now. He’s also had a lot of success against the Sabres in his career as the active player leading scorer that is right up there with the all-time names overall.
Trivia answer: The five Penguin players with at least three 25+ goal seasons in the Crosby era are: Sidney Crosby (15), Evgeni Malkin (12), Jake Guentzel (3), Phil Kessel (3), and the newest member of this club…Bryan Rust who recently scored his 25 and 26th goals of the season. (Hat tip Pens PR)