Game 12 Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Dallas Stars 10/26/2019: lines, how to watch

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (6-5-0, 12 points, tied-4th place Metropolitan Division) @ Dallas Stars (4-7-1, 9 points, 5th place Central Division)

When: 8:00 p.m.

How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet in the Western PA area, Fox Sports Southwest, ESPN+

Opponent Track: Ever since the Stars lost to the Pens last week they have rolled off a three game win streak. Beat Philly, Ottawa and Anaheim

Pens path ahead: Tonight ends a three game road trip and the boys go back home to play Philly on Tuesday

Season Series: This concludes the yearly matchups after the Pens won 4-2 last Friday on 10/18

SBN Team Counterpart: Check out our pals at Defending Big D for the perspective from the other side

Tale of the Tape

(note: league ranks are prior to Friday night’s games)

—Dallas has improved with their three game winning streak but remain a major work in progress

—Pens power play now at 0 for a lot.

Player Stats at a Glance

via hockeydb:

—Ben Bishop has turned it around a lot since the first time these two teams played.

Possible Lines (based on Friday practice)

Jamie Benn - Roope Hintz - Corey Perry

Mattias Janmark - Tyler Seguin - Denis Gurianov

Jason Dickinson - Radek Faksa - Alex Radulov

Andrew Cogliano - Justin Dowling - Joe Pavelski

Miro Heiskanen / John Klingberg

Esa Lindell / Andrej Sekera

Jamie Oleksiak / Taylor Fedun

Expected scratches: Hanley

Injured reserve: Blake Comeau, Stephen Johns, Roman Polak, Martin Hanzal

—This is year 1 of 35-year old Pavelski’s three year, $7.0 million contract. Yikes

—Otherwise, another “elite player on each of the top three lines” strategy with Benn, Seguin and Radulov all split up, different from the last time we’ve seen Dallas.

And now for the Pens..

That fudge unreal bud?

Infographic courtesy of the Penguins:

Potential Lines (Based on Friday practice)

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Dominik Simon

Bryan Rust - Nick Bjugstad- Patric Hornqvist

Dominik Kahun - Jared McCann - Sam Lafferty

Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brandon Tanev

John Marino / Kris Letang

Jack Johnson / Justin Schultz

Marcus Pettersson/ ???

Expected scratches: Chad Ruhwedel (healthy), Juuso Riikola (healthy)

Injured: Evgeni Malkin (lower body injury, IR) Alex Galchenyuk (lower body injury, IR), Brian Dumoulin (lower body injury, IR)

—Goodbye Erik Gudbranson so now we’ll see if the Pens go with Riikola or Ruhwedel in his absence