Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Carolina Hurricanes 11/7/2024

The Pens face a tough challenge tonight in Raleigh

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (5-7-2, 12 points) @ Carolina Hurricanes (9-2-0, 18 points)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh and something called “FDSNSO” (FanDuel Sportsnet South?) in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: After tonight the Pens make the jump up to Washington DC for a game tomorrow night, then get the odd Saturday+Sunday off to rest before a two-game home-stand begins next Tuesday when Dallas comes to the ‘Burgh.

Opponent Track: Carolina is off to a hot start, entering tonight on a seven-game winning streak. This is game four of four on their home-stand and the combined score of the last three games has been 18-8. That’s a hell of an early start to the season

Season Series: Pittsburgh marked Game No. 2 of the ‘Canes current winning streak back on October 18th (a 4-1 Carolina win where the score was even closer than the game played out). Luckily for the Pens, there is only one more PIT/CAR game after tonight, which will be back in Raleigh in a couple months on January 7th.

Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, the Penguins are looking for their first win at Lenovo Center in seven games, dating back to Dec. 22, 2018 (0-3-3). But often it has been close, five of the six games during the 0-3-3 stretch have been one-goal games.

Trivia Question: Sidney Crosby (598 goals) is looking to become only the fourth player in the last 16 years to hit the 600-goal plateau. One is very easy, who are the other three that have scored their 600th career goal since 2008? (Answer at bottom of the preview)

Getting to know the Hurricanes

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Jack Roslovic

Eric Robinson – Jesper Kotkaniemi – Martin Necas

Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Seth Jarvis

William Carrier – Jack Drury – Jackson Blake

DEFENSEMEN

Jaccob Slavin / Brent Burns

Dmitri Orlov / Jalen Chatfield

Shayne Gostisbehere / Sean Walker

Goalies: Pyotr Kochetkov, Spencer Martin

Potential Scratches: Frederik Andersen (injured)

IR: Jesper Fast

—Balance and depth is the name of the game for the Canes right now. Aho, Necas and Jarvis all being split to different lines gives a sense of how Carolina can come at teams in endless waves. They play a relentless game and having all their lines clicking makes for a tough night at the office for the opposition more often than not with danger lurking around every line change.

—Shocked Pikachu face that the goalie who always gets injured these days in Andersen is already, wait for it, out on a week-to-week basis. Kochetkov has some promise as a young goalie but the most important position on the ice always seems to linger as a potential big problem when it counts for Carolina, and that hasn’t seemed to change..

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—How charmed is Carolina to use the exact same 12 forwards and six defenders so far in each and every one of their first 11 games of the season? No injury changes to the skaters, no performance issues, just consistency. Very fitting for how that franchise has been operating, we’ll see how long that can last. As of now, they have their third goalie (Martin) up and no extra skaters, so they couldn’t even change if they wanted to until they made some call-ups from the AHL and dipped back into the LTIR pool. But for now they’re saving and accruing cap space by going bare bones on the roster. It’s been working.

—While Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin got a lot of attention for being named for the first time to the NHL’s Three Stars of the Week at the same time, don’t forget the other player named was Martin Necas. The 25-year old is on an absolute tear at the beginning of this season with 20 points in the first 11 games (and 17 points in his seven-game scoring streak). There’s hot and then there’s that. Oh yeah, Necas scored to break a tie and win the last game Carolina played with 32 seconds to go.

—Jack Roslovic looking like an early season Cy Young contender with his 7-0 split of goals to assists. He scored one of those goals in the October game against the Pens.

—Jordan Staal is still signed for two more seasons but at 36 his offensive game has all but dissolved. Doesn’t mean he can’t be effective in other areas but last year saw some near career-lows (full season) in goals (10) and points (30). With only one goal and no assists so far, that might be way lower this campaign. He’s been willing to sacrifice stats as a team leader chasing a Cup but this is an odd season of his late-career compared to the youthful, blossoming force he once was in Pittsburgh so many years ago.

And now for the Pens

Infographic courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins PR

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Evgeni Malkin – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor – Lars Eller – Cody Glass

Michael Bunting – Noel Acciari – Jesse Puljujarvi

Kevin Hayes* – Blake Lizotte – Anthony Beauvillier

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Jack St. Ivany

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Valtteri Puustinen

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Bryan Rust (week-to-week lower body injury)

—*Hayes was absent from practice yesterday, putting his availability for tonight’s game into question. The team did not do any line rushes, so we’ll tentatively stick with the lines they used for Tuesday’s game against the Islanders with the knowledge that potential changes are possible.

—At the same time, Rust was at practice and should be back sooner than later — though there was no signal if that would mean as soon as today to get back into the lineup.

Sid 600

Some good nuggets from Pens PR and NHL PR about Sidney Crosby approaching the 600 goal club. With two more goals, Crosby will be only the ninth player in NHL history to have 600 goals + 1000 assists.

Below is a breakdown courtesy of NHL PR on the number of games required for Crosby to reach each goal milestone from the previous one:

Milestone Date 1 Date 2 Games Required

NHL Debut to 1st Goal; Oct. 5, 2005 – Oct. 8, 2005, 3
1 to 100 Goals; Oct. 8, 2005- Oct. 18, 2008, 217
100 to 200 Goals; Oct. 18, 2008- Nov. 27, 2010, 178
200 to 300 Goals; Nov. 27, 2010- Apr. 1, 2015, 227
300 to 400 Goals; Apr. 1, 2015- Feb. 11, 2018, 218
400 to 500 Goals; Feb. 11, 2018- Feb. 15, 2022, 239
500 to 600 Goals; Feb. 15, 2022- TBD, 210*

*Not including today’s game

How about Sid potentially going from 500-600 goals a little quicker than any other number besides 100-200? His consistency in production rivals that of a Swiss watch, and even in his advanced age it isn’t slowing down one bit.

Top line magic

From Pens PR:

Over the last four games, Head Coach Mike Sullivan has deployed a top line of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell, and the trio have been one of the league’s most dangerous lines.

Per moneypuck.com, only one combination in the NHL is producing more shot attempts per 60 minutes than Pittsburgh’s trio (min. 60 minutes played together).

Highest Shot Attempts Per 60 Minutes, NHL:

Team Line SA/60

CAR Roslovic-Aho-Svechnikov 87.99
PIT Malkin-Crosby-Rakell 83.68
EDM Arvidsson-Draisaitl-Podkolzin 82.48
CAR Martinook-Staal-Jarvis 80.71
TOR Knies-Matthews-Marner 79.35

Below is a look at each player’s production over the last four games while paired together:

Player GP G A PTS
Sidney Crosby 4 5 3 8
Rickard Rakell 4 2 3 5
Evgeni Malkin 4 1 1 2

We also included this to point out what you may have noticed that tonight’s opponent has not one but two lines firing a ton of shots at the net recently. The Hurricanes are always known as volume-heavy shooting team that often possesses and fires the puck, their average of 35.8 shots/game is leading the league so far this season. That gave Pittsburgh fits in the first meeting a few weeks ago, Carolina put 38 shots to goalie Joel Blomqvist on that night (with the rookie making 35 saves).

Trivia Answer: Who are the most three recent members to join the 600-goal club? Alex Ovechkin (2018) was the most recent player to score his 600th goal, that was the easy one. Former Penguin Jarome Iginla was the second most recent in 2016 (as a member of the Colorado Avalanche). Before Iginla, Teemu Selanne entered the club back in 2010. How many did you get?