Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Anaheim Ducks 2/10/2023 - Lines, how to watch

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (25-16-9, 59 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Anaheim Ducks (17-29-6, 40 points, 8th place Pacific Division)

When: 10:00pm eastern (gaaah)

How to Watch: AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh for the Pens’ viewing market, Bally Sports West out in that region, Sportsnet/TVAs in Canada, ESPN+

Opponent Track: Anaheim has had two games since coming back from the break; they dropped a shootout decision in Dallas on Monday and then rallied back to win in overtime on Tuesday in Chicago in their last game out. Frank Vatrano scored the OT GWG. That’s 1-0-1 in the last two, but also important to note that like the Pens, the Ducks have had more than their fair share of close games and contests that go to overtime lately.

Pens Path Ahead: The Penguins head across the SoCal sprawl to play in Los Angeles proper tomorrow night, then will eventually make their way up north to San Jose on Tuesday. After that, it’s no more games in the Pacific time zone with the team coming back to the east next week.

Season Series: Pittsburgh gutted out a 4-3 OT win against the Ducks only a few weeks ago at home. It was one of the more frustrating games of the season, and required a Bryan Rust goal in the final minute of the third period for the Pens to avoid an embarrassing regulation loss. The Pens out-shot Anaheim 45-29 in the game and Jake Guentzel finally scored to end the game.

Hidden Stat: Anaheim is last in the NHL in total goals allowed (207), 5v5 goals allowed (144), shots per game allowed (38.7) and second-to-last in 4v5 goals allowed (45).

Getting to know the Ducks

SBN partner blog: None because Vox killed it

Potential Game Lines

FORWARDS

Frank Vatrano - Mason McTavish - Max Jones

Adam Henrique - Trevor Zegras - Ryan Strome

Sam Carrick - Isac Lundestrom - Jakub Silfverberg

Derek Grant - Jayson Megna - Brett Leason

DEFENSEMEN

Cam Fowler / Dmitri Kulikov

Colton White / John Klingberg

Simon Benoit / Kevin Shattenkirk

Goalies: John Gibson or Anthony Stolarz

Scratches: Troy Terry, Maxime Comtois, Nathan Beaulieu

IR: John Moore, Jamie Drysdale, Urho Vaakanainen, Justin Kirkland

—An already bad Ducks team looks even worse without Terry. The forward was injured Monday against Dallas in the first game back and was out for Tuesday’s game. No word at press time if Anaheim’s second leading scorer will be playing tonight.

—Stolarz played on the b-2-b and got the win for Anaheim on Tuesday, but Gibson was really good against the Pens last month in Pittsburgh. I assume Gibson gets the nod again to face his near-hometown team, but we shall see.

Stats

via hockeydb

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Almost time for the annual Pittsburgh/Anaheim trade?

Pittsburgh and Anaheim have made frequent trading partners over the years, despite several different managers on each side. As out-of-conference foes that rarely meet, neither has much problem dealing players to the other side — in an NHL world where teams are becoming ever-more hesitant in the trades they’re willing to make.

Henrique leads Anaheim in goals currently and has a contract for next season. The Ducks don’t exactly have a lot of payroll on the books and will need to pay some NHL talent, so I remain skeptical that they have much incentive to trade this player at this time, unless they’re getting a return that they really like. We’ll see I guess, but given Pittsburgh’s needs, Henrique would be a very nice fit in their supporting cast.

Head to head

—You think John Gibson ever sits and thinks, “what the hell am I doing here”? Couldn’t fault him if he did. Gibson still has four seasons after this one on his contract, which is a hefty $6.4 million for a goalie (only Bobrovsky and Vasilevskiy have bigger cap hits for currently active goalies). As a result, Gibson and the Ducks are more or less stuck together with that long and large of a contract for what probably is a better goalie than his stats show, but too big of a risk/cost for another team to come get.

—The Ducks are so, so, so poor defensively. Their personnel might not be that of a Stanley Cup winning caliber, but it shouldn’t be as terrible of results as it is either. That can’t bode well for the future of Dallas Eakins the coaching staff to be unable to get a respectable effort out of their players, and lose a ton along the way.

—Pittsburgh put up 45 shots and four goals in the first game between the two. It would be a disappointment if they don’t at least come close to that type of levels tonight. Anything can happen on any given game when you have NHL-talented players, but the Pens really should be feasting in this matchup.

And now for the Pens...

Thursday Practice Lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen

Ryan Poehling - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald

Defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry

P.O. Joseph / Chad Ruhwedel

Goalies: Casey DeSmith or Dustin Tokarski

Scratches: Drew O’Connor, Danton Heinen, Mark Friedman

IR: Tristan Jarry, Jan Rutta

—The top two lines look back to optimal status, with Rakell performing pretty well anywhere he’s been, but statistically has more bite with the top line. The bottom two lines? Well, there’s a low bar to clear, doing anything positive would be unexpected and a boost to the team with players like McGinn (17 games), Blueger (15) and Carter (11) going now month’s on end without registering so much as a point.

—Jake Guentzel has been quiet as of late, but did put a career-high 10 shots on goal in a single game last time out against Colorado. The goals will come when the shot volume is that high for a player like that and tonight just might be the night where a goal or two goes in for No. 59.

—Jarry was a full practice participant, his return might be soon, but considering quality of opponent it might make sense to give him one more day and wait for the Kings.

—Rutta was also in a normal jersey and skated with the extras. By virtue of the “long term” part of long term IR, Rutta can not come back to play until Feb. 14th. That means neither of the next two game, but he could be playing again as soon as the San Jose game.

—Got this stat from Bob Grove and though it’s surely questionable on the “correlation vs. causation” scale, it’s a fun little ditty nonetheless. The Pens are 13-2-1 this season when Archibald has been in the lineup.