Penguins

Game Day #3, No Sid: Penguins Lines, Notes & News vs. Fleury, Blackhawks

Published

3 years ago

October 16, 2021

Pittsburgh Penguins game, chicago blackhawks

The possible reunion of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury will not happen Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. Only Fleury will be present as Crosby did not participate in the morning skate, and Malkin is injured. The Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup core members who will be on the ice are Fleury for the Chicago Blackhawks and Kris Letang for the Penguins.

The Pittsburgh Penguins (1-0-1) will host the Chicago Blackhawks (0-1-1) Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Of course, Fleury had some fun with his former teammate on Saturday morning. Letang reported, “he taped all of my stuff into a ball.”

Yep, Fleury pulled another prank.

The Pittsburgh Penguins earned three of four points in their first two games of the season. On Tuesday, the Penguins raced past the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2. Danton Heinen, Dominik Simon, And Bria Boyle were among the goal scorers. Tristan Jarry stopped 26 of 28 shots.

The Florida Panthers rallied from a two-goal, third-period deficit to force overtime with the Penguins on Thursday. The Penguins lost 5-4 in OT but lost 5-4.

Danton Heinen has two goals in two games. He will again play on the Penguins top line with Jeff Carter and Jake Guentzel.

Head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Crosby would not play, nor will defenseman Mike Matheson. Bryan Rust is also out and still being evaluated after a heavy hit early in the third period against Florida.

Pittsburgh Penguins Lines

LW	C	RW
Jake Guentzel	Sidney Crosby	Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker	Evgeni Malkin	Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen	Ryan Poehling	Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn	Sam Poulin	Drew O'Connor

LD	RD
Brian Dumoulin	Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson	Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph	Jan Rutta

Goalie
Tristan Jarry
Casey DeSmith

Expected Chicago Blackhawks lines, PuckPedia.com:

Debrincat-Johnson-Kane

Kubalik-Toews-Kurashev

Borgstrom-Dach-Hagel

Khaira-Entwistle-Gaudette

Defense:

de Haan-Jones

McCabe-Murphy

Stillman-Gustafsson

Goalie:

Marc-Andre “he taped my stuff into a ball” Fleury

Special Teams:

TEAM	Power Play	Penalty Kill
Pittsburgh Penguins	24.1% (7-29, 11th)	72% (7-25, 28th)
Vancouver Canucks	22.2% (6-27, 17th)	60% (10-25, 32nd)

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Notes:

–The Penguins are facing the Blackhawks for the first time since November 9, 2019 – a 3-2 shootout win for the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust scored in regulation, and then Guentzel and Jared McCann converted in the shootout.

-The Penguins enter the 2021-22 season with an active sellout streak of 632 consecutive home games (regular season + playoffs). This includes all of the games from last season except the eight home games at the start of the season where no fans were in the stands.

-The Penguins are 28-15-10 all-time in home openers, including a 5-2-1 mark in its last eight games.

-Goaltender Tristan Jarry is 14-1-1 in his last 18 regular-season games played dating back to March 24, 2021. In that span, he has a 2.55 goals-against average, .911 save percentage, and two shutouts

–The Penguins and Blackhawks have dominated the NHL for the better part of the last decade-plus. Since the beginning of the 2007-08 season, the Penguins’ 636 wins are most in the NHL, while the Blackhawks’ 579 wins are sixth-most.

–With a win, head coach Mike Sullivan will become the Pittsburgh Penguins’ all-time winningest coach with 253 wins, surpassing former coach Dan Bylsma.