Pittsburgh Penguins vs Minnesota Wild
7 p.m. Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Radio: 105.9 the X and the Penguins Radio Network
Projected Penguins Lines:
72 Patric Hornqvist 16 Brandon Sutter 19 Beau Bennett
13 Nick Spaling 57 Marcel Goc 23 Steve Downie
17 Blake Comeau 25 Andrew Ebbett 27 Craig Adams
38 Zach Sill 49 Oskar Sundqvist 59 Jayson Megna
4 Rob Scuderi 7 Paul Martin 37 Jeff Zatkoff
41 Robert Bortuzzo 47 Simon Despres 1 Thomas Greiss
6 Scott Harrington 8 Brian Dumoulin
Former Penguins assistant coach Mike Yeo will lead the Minnesota Wild into Pittsburgh tonight. The Penguins (0-2) are still looking for their first preseason victory, and are also looking for some offense after only scoring one goal over the previous two games. The Wild (0-1) lost 2-1 in Winnipeg on Monday.
If the Penguins are going to get more offense, that scoring punch will have to come from role players, unfortunately, as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz will all be held out with injuries. Crosby, Kunitz and Dupuis practiced after today’s morning skate, and head coach Mike Johnston said that he is hoping Crosby and Kunitz will be cleared to play on Saturday against Columbus.
As far as the Penguins that are playing, the competition for the final roster spots continue. Five players skating tonight — Oskar Sundqvist, Zach Sill, Andrew Ebbett, Craig Adams and Jayson Megna — are all competing for as few as two roster spots as the 12th and 13th forwards.
On defense, Olli Maatta has still yet to see game action. If he’s unable to start his season on time, the seventh defenseman would probably be either Scott Harrington or Brian Dumoulin, who will play together tonight.
Jeff Zatkoff will get the start in goal and is expected to play the entire game. Thomas Greiss stopped 26 of 27 shots against Columbus on Tuesday. Zatkoff appears to have an uphill climb to make the team, but a good showing this evening would be an excellent first step.
