The Toronto Maple Leafs (1-2-1, 3 pts) are coming to Consol Energy Center Saturday night and, no surprise, all eyes are on former Leaf Phil Kessel. Kessel is one of the newest members of the Pittsburgh Penguins (1-3-0, 2 pts), who play a third consecutive home game and try to build on the first victory of the season.
That came Thursday in a shutout win over Ottawa. A third Canadian squad comes to Pittsburgh in as many games as Toronto, also coming off a victory after a three-game losing streak to begin the season, will try to build off a 6-3 winning effort at Columbus on Friday.
Kessel, 28, spent six years in Toronto after three years in Boston. While expectations were high as always in Toronto, Kessel’s quality production never translated to wins and his tenure there was widely criticized by the local media. In Pittsburgh, he stands by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and others as opposed to being the sole star player expected to bring success to the franchise.
So far, the winger has one goal, one assist and a plus-1 rating, producing the only points on a top line that features Crosby and Chris Kunitz. Kessel is also often featured on a power play unit that is 0-12 so far. Overall, the offense has not been there, as the team averages just 1.25 goals per game through the first four. That is 27th out of 30 in the NHL and comes as a surprise considering the star power on the top lines.
Early bumps and bruises: Pittsburgh enters the game already slightly banged up, as Beau Bennett was placed on Injured Reserve with an undisclosed ailment. He missed Thursday’s game against the Senators. Eric Fehr and Pascal Dupuis remain sidelined as well.
Rob Scuderi will return to the lineup, resulting in Adam Clendening being scratched. It was Scuderi who did not suit up Thursday as a healthy scratch, but head coach Mike Johnston decided to insert him back into the defensive pairings. Clendening played a role in the shutout of the Senators but the youngster did, however, have two late penalties and a turnover mixed in to his NHL debut.
Where is the captain?: Sidney Crosby has been, to put it bluntly, mostly invisible through four games. At least on the score sheet, he has. While he strives to find his stride early in 2015 and to find chemistry with Kessel, number 87 is mired in what is tied for the longest scoreless game streak of his career – five games, dating back to last season. He does have 49 points in 31 career games against Toronto, so perhaps that duo will have an easier time meshing in this matchup. For the Penguins to win the special teams battle, Crosby will need to find the net or set up his teammates on the power play.
Can’t go Sprong: Youngster Daniel Sprong has seen the least amount of ice time among all Penguins who have played in each of the four games so far, but he has definitely made an impact. Expect to see him on the third line again alongside center Nick Bonino. Sprong scored Thursday for his first NHL point and his 16.7 shot percentage is best on the team, albeit a small sample size. The 18 year-old Dutch rookie winger has caught the eye of his head coach, who simply stated after Thursday’s win that Sprong “has been strong…very strong.”
Maple Leafs notes: The visitors are likely to start Jonathan Bernier opposite Marc-Andre Fleury in this matchup. He is 0-2 with a 3.85 GAA and .865 save percentage. Toronto’s top scorer through four games has been third-line winger Daniel Winnik. He has four points total including three assists, which all came Friday in Columbus. In that game, he played on the same line with Nick Spaling, who makes a quick return to Pittsburgh after departing in the offseason.
Projected lines for 10/17 vs. Toronto:
OFFENSE
Kunitz-Crosby-Kessel
Perron-Malkin-Hornqvist
Plotnikov-Bonino-Sprong
Porter-Cullen-Rust
DEFENSE
Letang-Cole
Lovejoy-Maatta
Dumoulin-Scuderi
GOALTENDER
Marc-Andre Fleury (making what will be his 600th career appearance in net)
