Pittsburgh Penguins Battle Log: Game 1 – Dallas Stars
By Mike Necciai
The Pittsburgh Penguins kick off their regular season tonight in Dallas vs. the Stars at the American Airlines Center. After a long, yet exciting offseason we finally have regular season hockey back in our lives.
The Pens obviously have a lot of question marks heading into 2015-16. But, they also have a tremendous amount of offensive talent that they can rely on. There’s absolutely no reason this team shouldn’t finish in the top-three in scoring among all NHL teams when it’s all said and done.
Mike Johnston has a renewed approach to this team and his players have accepted him more than ever. In fact Josh Yohe recently wrote a piece on exactly that, outlining how this lineup has shifted gears in their belief in Johnston. I’ve also questioned whether or not he’d be capable of jumping from junior hockey to leading a team with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and to be honest, I expect that he’ll impress a lot of people this season.
Can he guide this team to the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup? The journey begins tonight.
Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup and Notes
Pittsburgh’s lineup tonight should look as follows…
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Phil Kessel
Sergei Plotnikov – Evgeni Malkin – Patric Hornqvist
David Perron – Nick Bonino – Beau Bennett
Bobby Farnham – Matt Cullen – Daniel Sprong
Ian Cole – Kris Letang
Olli Maatta – Ben Lovejoy
Rob Scuderi – Brian Dumoulin
However, the game day skate was optional this morning and Kunitz, Crosby and Kessel were not present. Neither was Head Coach Mike Johnston.
Notes
It was widely assumed that Maatta and Letang would be Pittsburgh’s top pairing on the blue line, leaving the rest to be decided later. However, that isn’t the case. The Penguins are looking at Cole playing alongside Letang on the top pairing instead and I can’t say I disagree with that assessment.
There’s very little historical data on Letang and Cole as a pair. The two of them played 13:21 together at 5v5 last season, so clearly not enough of a sample for any useful analysis. What we do know is that Letang and Maatta recorded a fairly large sample size together in 2013-14 and the results were far from stellar. (via puckalytics.com)
Of course, that was Maatta’s rookie season. And, I’m not saying that the two of them won’t be united and work out very well at some point in the future but I can see why the Pens are looking to other groupings. Plus, it may be beneficial to spread your top two defensemen throughout the lineup rather than stacking them on one pairing.
Daniel Sprong, the Penguins’ second round pick in this summer’s draft will make his NHL debut tonight. And, I imagine he’s probably fairly excited.
Sidney Crosby said rookie RW Daniel Sprong, who makes his NHL debut tonight, "had his gear on, I think, 20 minutes before the morning skate"
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) October 8, 2015
It’ll be fun to see if he can continue his play from the preseason.
Dallas Stars Lineup and Notes
According to Dallas’ morning skate, the lines will be as follows…
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Tyler Seguin
Valeri Nichushkin – Jason Spezza – Patrick Sharp
Travis Moen – Vernon Fiddler – Patrick Eaves
Antoine Roussel – Mattias Janmark – Ales Hemsky
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
Johnny Oduya – Jason Demers
Jyrki Jokipakka – Jordie Benn
Notes
Alex Goligoski has developed into a legit top-pairing defenseman since leaving Pittsburgh in the trade that brought James Neal and Matt Niskanen to the Pens. He’s a smart, poised blue-liner that plays well positionally in his own end and also boasts very good puck skills. His rate stats, according to his HERO chart, are superb.
Jamie Benn is a name to watch as he’ll likely be right in the thick of things for the Art Ross when the season begins winding down. He won the award last season, despite playing without Tyler Seguin for an extended period of time.
The Stars have one of the more perplexing goaltender situations in the league. While Antti Niemi will start tonight, they also have Kari Lehtonen on the roster. Between the two of them, they equal roughly $10.4 million against the cap. That’s a lot of money to have wrapped up at that position.
Other Tidbits
The Pittsburgh Penguins went 0-2 against the Stars last season, including a 3-2 loss on October 16 in Pittsburgh and a 2-1 loss in Dallas on March 19.
The Penguins are 66-59-12 all-time vs. Dallas and has averaged 3.51 goals-per-game.
Next: Metropolitan Division Power Rankings - October Edition