Penguins/NHL
The Penguins starting tonight embark on a five-game home stand vs Columbus, Edmonton, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Seattle. Five Games in Seven Days, Pittsburgh will already be at the 46-game mark by next Wednesday. Pittsburgh needs to come out of the homestand 3-2 and ideally you want to get wins against Columbus and Ottawa, among the glut of teams in the mix for the final wildcard spot and there are opportunities emerging for two wildcard spots to be in play as the Boston Bruins coaching change boost is starting to wear off a bit.
Points% Entering Today
Boston .536%; Ottawa .526%; Montreal .513%; Columbus .500%; Pittsburgh .500%; Philadelphia .487%; Detroit .487%.
Below that group is New York Rangers .474% and the New York Islanders .463%.
This is a pretty large homestand for the Penguins where they need to do some damage to start some sort of separation as the Penguins enter tonight 11-7-2 on home ice, compared to the road where the Penguins have won just six of 21 Road Games thus far this season.
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— Anthony Beauvillier fifth on the team with 9 goals has seen himself fall out of favor with the coaching staff since the break. With Pittsburgh aggressively trying to move a forward to create some roster flexibility, there’s been some trade rumblings around Beauvillier in recent days with one deal out West for a minor league forward in return. Beauvillier is expected to be a healthy scratch with Jesse Puljujarvi in contention to dress for time in a month. Pittsburgh actively tried moving Puljujarvi over the last little while to no avail so far.
— Kevin Hayes has looked excellent in two games after being a healthy scratch for nine games. Pittsburgh is still running out a fourth line that is pretty much non-playable and demoting Blake Lizotte to the fourth line has taken away his effectiveness. Adds another layer to how impressive the Penguins turnaround has been when they’re not even dress their best 12 forwards……….
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— A few teams have made it known of interest in acquiring both To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
— Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell in his final year as Hurricanes GM, had a blockbuster trade worked out for Elias Pettersson. No surprise there is some smoke around the Blue Jackets who have the young assets to be in the ball game. The Canucks, though, have pressure on them that despite Pettersson not having a No Trade Clause, they are expected to be considerate where they send him if they decide to move the 26 year old star. Super Agent Pat Brisson has been heavily involved and two destinations out there, Buffalo and Columbus are not strongly favored by the player and his camp. There are some surprise teams the Canucks have engaged with, including the East leading Washington Capitals.
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Lineup
Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-Glass
O’Connor-Hayes-Puljujarvi
Nieto-Lizotte-Acciari
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Pettersson – Letang
Grzelcyk – Karlsson
Pickering – Joseph
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Starting Goaltender: Tristan Jarry
: Matt Grzelcyk with 20 Assists in 41 games is averaging 0.49 Assists P/G. His career average is 0.27 Assists P/G. With the front office not keen on paying Marcus Pettersson the long-term money he deserves, the organization right now is said to be ‘strong lean’ on keeping To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! The Penguins internally are already mapping out the roster for next season where spots have to be allotted for Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty and there’s noise in the organization 2021 2nd round pick Tristan Broz is also starting to be grouped in with those two of players of young players who will be ready for roles to start 2025-2026 and provide an impact. Some in the organization feel Broz is even above Koivunen and McGroarty are being ready to play in the NHL now. Not ceiling as Koivunen has the highest of the three but NHL ready and maybe safest player of the three could be Broz who has Bryan Rust attributes………..The numbers are certainly not there but ‘as of today’ continue to get the impression Cody Glass is a player the Penguins will have To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
