Who: Pittsburgh Penguins
(3-5-1, 7 points, 6th place Metropolitan Division) @ Utah Mammoth (6-3-0, 12 points, 2nd place Central Division)When: 9:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally televised game on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Utah 16, Mammoth+, streaming for out of market at ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens will have to be happy this is the end of their 0-3-0 road trip and they can head home after tonight’s game. Up next will be home games on Thursday (vs. Florida) and Saturday (vs. Nashville), followed
by a four-day break.
Opponent Track: Utah will be looking to bounce back from a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Oilers in their last game, which broke a three-game Mammoth winning streak. Utah has been in a fairly regular pattern of playing games just about every-other-day to start the season, they can probably afford to ‘empty the tank’ tonight with all out efforts as needed since they are off until playing Thursday night after this one.
Season Series: The Pens and Mammoth will see each other again soon, Utah comes to Pittsburgh in ten days on October 29th to play the second and final game of the season before the first full month ends.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins are 2-1-1 all-time against the Mammoth and have points in three-straight games (2-0-1), per Pens PR. They’re also a perfect 2-0-0 in their brief history of playing at the Delta Center.
Getting to know the Mammoth
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Clayton Keller – Nick Schmaltz – Lawson Crouse
Logan Cooley – Vincent Trocheck – Dylan Guenther
Anders Lee – Barrett Hayton – Kailer Yamamoto
Jack McBain – Kevin Stenlund – Danil But
DEFENSEMEN
Mikhail Sergachev / Mackenzie Weegar
Nate Schmidt / John Marino
Dmitry Simashev / Andrew Peeke
Goalies: Karel Vejmelka and Sebastian Cossa
Potential scratches: Liam O’Brien, Michael Carcone, Nick DeSimone
Injured Reserve: none
- Impressive looking lineup on paper. Nice to see a Pittsburgh connection with Trocheck centering Cooley for a little something extra to track.
- Utah wants to take the next step and has been bringing in solid vets recently like Trocheck, Lee and Weegar to join their core and attempt get to the next level for being a consistent playoff squad. Another key step will be getting talented youngsters like But, Simashev and Cossa to grow into key players as they get more experience. Combine players in their primes like Keller, Cooley, Sergachev, Schmaltz and Guenther and they have a nice mix of talent and age ranges sprinkled throughout the lineup.
- Guenther is definitely a personal favorite of mine. He’s a smooth offensive player and pretty steady in his output. Doesn’t get as much shine as some other young stars, but his play makes him a dangerous player to keep track of.
- McBain got in a really good NHL fight on Saturday night, if that’s your type of thing check it out.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Incredibly clean start to the season for the Mammoth. Yamamoto returned from an injury and that has been the only lineup change that they’ve had to make all season long to this point with the other 17 skaters playing all nine games so far. Having a lot of consistency within the lineup has been a part of the nice start for Utah, giving them the opportunity to build together with just about the exact same lineup every game so far.
- Vejmelka got pulled from last game after giving up five goals to the Oilers. Cossa has only started two games, and he also got pulled from his previous start back on Oct. 8 after giving up three first period goals to Boston. Vejmelka has been the primary choice to play most of the games so far, it was going fairly well to keep the puck out of the net (2.39 GAA) prior to running into Edmonton last game that has now ballooned him up to 2.89.
- Utah features five players averaging at least a point/per game (counting Yamamoto) and Logan Cooley isn’t far behind. Offense has been the name of the game so far for the Mammoth, their 3.67 team goals/game ranks 7th in the NHL. Their power play, at 35.3%, leads the league and been a real weapon to watch out for.
Key to the game: Can the Pens’ offense show up?
If you look at the Mammoth so far this season, there’s a lot they do really well. At 5v5 they’re a great process-based team, though they do under-perform slightly in the actual goals. Their power play is red hot. However, they have a couple of weaknesses, specifically the goaltending and PK work.
Of course, the Penguins aren’t positioned that well against those weaknesses based on recent games. Pittsburgh has only scored 10 total goals (not counting an extra one tacked one via winning a shootout) in their last five outings. That’s ugly and not going to win many games in the high-scoring world the NHL is these day. To make matters worse, their power play is just 3-for-24 (12.5%) in the month of October. Then again, if ever there was a time to breakout in those areas, tonight could be the night to do it by lighting the lamp a few times – perhaps even so bold as to hope some might come (gasp) while up a player.
It’s been difficult to generate a lot against Utah so far with their expected goals allowed ranking 4th in the NHL, so any opportunities that pop up will be crucial to convert into goals. It’s not going to be an easy path to travel tonight, but some guideposts are there about how it could happen with Vejmelka’s recent performances and a generous Utah PK.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Ville Koivunen – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Andrei Kuzmenko – Ben Kindel – Nick Robertson
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Elmer Soderblom
DEFENSEMEN
Declan Carlile / Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard* / Kaeden Korczak
Spencer Stastney / Kris Letang
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov
Potential Scratches: Hendrix Lapierre, Egor Chinakhov and Ilya Solovyov
IR: Ryan Graves, Justin Brazeau, Trevor van Riemsdyk
- Yesterday was a day off for the Penguins, there hasn’t been a substantial update yet about Girard’s status for the day and that will be the main area to keep an eye on. In perhaps preparation for a spot opening up in the lineup, Ilya Solovyov was brought up from the AHL yesterday and Ryan Johnson was assigned to Wilkes-Barre. van Riemsdyk has not been on the road trip as he rehabs his injury back in Pittsburgh.
- Coach Dan Muse updated the status of Chinakhov as day-to-day, though that day to return might not be today. Chinakhov was seen walking with a ‘noticeable limp’ days ago after getting injured in practice last Thursday.
Most assists for one franchise
Pretty cool little record that’s more a footnote than anything but still a nice achievement to hold. One more helper for Sidney Crosby and no one else in history will have more assists with a single NHL franchise.
