Duck season doesn’t start until Saturday in the state of Pennsylvania, but the Pittsburgh Penguins will look to get a head start as they begin their season tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. General Manager Jim Rutherford and Head Coach Mike Johnston will make their Consol Energy Center debuts, and the black and gold will be on the hunt for their first win under the new regime.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: As expected, the Penguins made five roster moves this morning, placing winger Beau Bennett on injured reserve, returning rookie winger Kasperi Kapanen to his Finnish team, and recalling forwards Andrew Ebbett and Zach Sill and defenseman Taylor Chorney from Wheeling of the ECHL. Somewhat surprisingly, injured defenseman Robert Bortuzzo remains on the roster. He is expected to be unavailable until the end of the month with an undisclosed injury.
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: The Anaheim Ducks are the reigning Pacific Division champions and are lead by Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. They finished last season 54-20-8 before bowing out in the second round of the playoffs to their cross-town rival and the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings.
Boudreau is a familiar face to Pens fans, as he coached the rival Washington Capitals from 2007 to 2011. He holds an incredible 13-2-3 record against Pittsburgh in the regular season.
The Ducks will be starting Whitehall, Pennsylvania native John Gibson in goal. Gibson, 21, played in only three games with Anaheim during the regulars season last year, but won all three games and had an incredible .954 save percentage.
WHAT’S AT STAKE: The Penguins would love to kick off the Mike Johnston era with a win, but history doesn’t suggest that it’s likely. The last Penguins head coach to win his debut was Rick Kehoe in 2001. Kehoe had replaced Ivan Hlinka after the latter started the season 0-4. The last Penguins head coach that was hired in the offseason to win his opener was Bob Johnson in 1990.
Johnson did, however win the Stanley Cup that year. In fact, the Penguins have had a first-year head coach in every season that they’ve won the cup: Johnson in 1991, Scotty Bowman in 1992 and Dan Bylsma in 2009.
POWER PLAYERS: The Penguins’ skill players missed a lot of training camp due to injuries and illnesses, so the power play configuration has been a mystery to this point. The first unit will feature Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. The second unit will have Paul Martin and Christian Ehrhoff at the points, and Pascal Dupuis, Brandon Sutter, and Steve Downie up front.
Regardless of who sees time with the man advantage, look for the Pens to try to utilize screens and make plays with players near the front of the net.
“Power play units are based on your best players and who you think fits together. We felt on that unit there, Hornqvist is very good around the rest and Kunitz is [also] very good around the net,” Coach Johnston said of his top unit’s makeup.
NUMBERS GAME: Don’t do a double take; that number 44 skating for the Penguins isn’t Brooks Orpik. It’s Taylor Chorney, who was signed as a free agent from Saint Louis. Other newcomers include Thomas Greiss (1), Ehrhoff (10), Nick Spaling (13), Blake Comeau (17), Downie (23), and Hornqvist (72).
OLD MAN OF THE CREASE: With Orpik departing in the offseason, Marc-Andre Fleury is now the Penguins’ longest-tenured player. He already holds almost every team record for goaltenders including the most games played, wins, and shutouts. Tonight, he will tie Tom Barrasso’s record with his ninth opening night start in the Penguins’ net. Fleury recently unveiled a new helmet that will honor Barrasso and match the team’s throwback third jerseys.
BANNER YEAR: The Penguins will be debuting their 2013-14 Metropolitan Division Champions banner tonight. That is, as long as someone found a way to fit “Metropolitan” across a banner. The Penguins have won their division eight times, including each of the past two seasons. Also going up to the ceiling will be Crosby’s 2013-14 Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer and Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
