Anaheim Ducks @ Pittsburgh Penguins 10/31/2024

Who: Anaheim Ducks (4-4-1, 9 points) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (3-7-1, 7 points)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: KCOP-13 in Southern California, SportsNet Pittsburgh in the Western PA market, streaming on ESPN+ nationally

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens stay at home for a game Saturday evening against Montreal and then get two days off to prepare for a three-game road trip next week that will take them to Long Island (Tues 11/5), Carolina (Thurs 11/7) and Washington (Fri 11/8).

Opponent Track: It’s the final game of a four-game eastern swing for the Ducks. They were previously in the greater NYC area for a while, losing to the Rangers on Saturday (2-1) and Devils on Sunday (6-2) before defeating the Islanders (3-1) on Tuesday in their most recent game.

Season Series: The Penguins take their trip to SoCal this season in late January (lucky them) and will be playing in Anaheim on Jan 23rd.

Hidden Stat: Pittsburgh has a 15-6-2 record (the two being ties) all-time at home against Anaheim

Getting to know the Ducks

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Robby Fabbri - Leo Carlsson - Troy Terry

Frank Vatrano - Mason McTavish - Ryan Strome

Cutter Gauthier - Trevor Zegras - Alex Killorn

Ross Johnston - Isac Lundestrom - Brock McGinn

DEFENSEMEN

Cam Fowler / Owen Zellweger

Pavel Mintyukov - Brian Dumoulin

Jackson Lacombe / Radko Gudas

Goalies: Lukas Dostal and James Reimer

Possible scratches: Brett Leason, Tristan Luneau, Urho Vaakanainen

IR: John Gibson

—The Ducks are starting to work young players throughout the lineup, the reward of what has been a slow and long rebuild. They’re going on seven seasons without a playoff appearance but have now been built with a ton of young talent up the middle and on defensive side of things. Those tend to be the right places to concentrate when using high picks, now the waiting game already in progress for those pieces to come together and get the build truly into gear.

—Anaheim is also positioned very well for the future with $19 million in cap space now and a projected $40 million in space for 2025-26 via PuckPedia. They don’t have a lot of bad money or long-lasting deals at this point (which is a result of struggling and going through some pain over the past five years to get to this position).

—Every single time I see Ross Johnston is on an NHL roster I think, ‘damn Ross Johnston is still on an NHL roster’? The 30-year old tough guy hasn’t been in the AHL since 2018 so there is no reason to not think that by now, but it’s one of those longevity cases that remains surprising.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—After being held off the scoresheet on opening night, Terry has exactly one point in each of his last eight games.

—The Ducks’ big story of October is the emergence of Dostal in net. The 24-year old Czech has been in the Anaheim organization for a while now (drafted in 2018, came over from Europe in 2020-21) and appeared in 44 NHL games last season as his career continues to ramp up. This year he’s turning heads with a sterling 2.00 GAA and .943 save% that rank among the early season leaders in net. Dostal is hot as of late, stopping 40 shots out of 41 by the Islanders on Tuesday.

—It’s nice to see Dumoulin getting a new start in Anaheim. The former Penguin spent one forgettable season in Seattle (averaging a career-low 17:01 per game) and left via free agency to join the Ducks on a one-year deal. There are some smoke and mirrors in play due to a .963 on ice save% but Dumoulin has been on the ice for 5 GF to only 3 GA so far with the Ducks at 5v5. The 5v5 chances (39 for, 82 against) aren’t a pretty sight, so let’s not pretend this isn’t a player who is in the middle of a late-career resurgence or anything but it’s nice to see him get some good early season results with his latest new club.

—Cuttier Gauthier has basically been a slightly better version of Rutger McGroarty for a while now (with both being high scoring NCAA Americans, first round picks in 2022 who soured on signing with the teams that drafted them) which makes it interesting to track one another’s careers in parallel to the other. Not really that great for Gauthier yet, he’s averaging 14:41 and without a goal but unlike McGroarty it seems is good enough to develop on the fly in the NHL. And, either way, best of luck to him for spurning the Flyers and hopefully giving them something to lament for the next 10-15 years.

And now for the Pens

Infographic courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins PR

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Evgeni Malkin - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor - Lars Eller - Noel Acciari

Michael Bunting - Cody Glass - Valtteri Puustinen

Anthony Beauvillier - Kevin Hayes - Jesse Puljujarvi

DEFENSEMEN

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Jack St. Ivany

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Blake Lizotte, Vasily Ponomarev, Bryan Rust (week-to-week lower body injury)

—The Pens didn’t practice yesterday after the 5-3 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night. Who plays in net will be an interesting decision; Nedeljkovic hasn’t been amazing in his return from injuries (allowing 12 goals in three games with a .874 save% along the way), but behind this defense it is difficult for any goalie to look respectable for long. Rookie Joel Blomqvist has been a touch better at keeping pucks out of the net, but he has ceded 12 goals in his last three games himself, so it’s not like he’s in tremendous form either. Riding a six-game losing streak this will be a crucial game for the Pens, they need a win. Nedeljkovic is the vet, will it be his net?

—The Pens somewhat quietly put Rust on IR, of the “normal” variety (which means he doesn’t count against the 23-player limit and can return after a week). The team could retroactively change him to LTIR if he is going to need to be out for 10 games to give them a little more short-term utility to navigate the salary cap.

Sid moves up the all-time ranks again..

Sidney Crosby had three assists in Pittsburgh’s last game. These days, any type of game like that from Crosby means some history and this one was no different. Crosby tied Ray Bourque and Mark Messier for sixth in career 3+ assist games.

It also moved Crosby into a tie with Joe Sakic for eighth place in multi-point games. From Pens PR:

Sidney Crosby was all over the scoresheet on Tuesday night against Minnesota, assisting on all three Pittsburgh goals. It marked Crosby’s 64th career three-assist game, moving him into a three-way tie for the sixth-most three-assist games in NHL history.

Most 3+ Assist Games, NHL History:

Player 3+ Assist Games

Wayne Gretzky 224
Mario Lemieux 108
Paul Coffey 82
Adam Oates 71
Ron Francis 65
Sidney Crosby 64
Ray Bourque 64
Mark Messier 64

It was also Crosby’s 473rd multi-point outing, which is now tied for eighth-most in NHL history.

Most Multi-Point Games, NHL History:

Player Multi-Point Games
Wayne Gretzky 824
Jaromir Jagr 540
Marcel Dionne 513
Mark Messier 513
Gordie Howe 511
Mario Lemieux 497
Steve Yzerman 477
Sidney Crosby 473
Joe Sakic 473

Crosby is also chasing down Sakic in the overall list of total assists, which will make Mario Lemieux (!!!) the soon-to-be next target for Sid.