Penguins @ Devils
Prudential Center | Newark, NJ
7:00PM Eastern | ESPN+ | MGS+ | AT&TSN-PT | NHL.tv
The Penguins cross the river from New York as they take on the New Jersey Devils in a Friday-night divisional matchup.
What many may have circled on their calendar as the first matchup between first overall pick Jack Hughes and first place GOAT Sidney Crosby, it unfortunately won’t live to that billing as the Penguins announced that 87 underwent successful core muscle surgery to repair a sports hernia that has been plaguing him since training camp.
Crosby will miss about 6 weeks, though the recovery time does vary.
#Pens Sullivan: "There’s no question when you lose a guy like Sid, he’s not easy to replace because he brings so much to the table for our team. But we do have capable guys. We’re just going to have to make sure we stay on task and we work together to try and get results." -MC
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) November 15, 2019
It’s Malkin’s turn to lead the team, which traditionally has gone exceedingly well for the Penguins, though Crosby has not had his health issues of old. If the Penguins are to right the ship after falling in overtime to the Rangers on Tuesday night, they are going to need 71 to be fire.
The Penguins finally broke the power play drought, and even without 87, they do face a struggling Jersey PK (and penalty kill) this evening; the Devils are 5th worst in the league a man down, allowing goals on 25.9% of opposition power plays.
Guentzel – Malkin – Rust
Galchenyuk – Bjugstad – Lafferty
Kahun – McCann – Simon
Aston-Reese – Blueger – Tanev
Dumoulin – Marino
Pettersson – Schultz
Johnson – Riikola
Murray
The Devils won the draft lottery in the offseason and did some significant retooling. The first part of this independent clause resulted in Jack Hughes joining the club, the latter brought in PK Subban (trade with Nashville), Wayne Simmonds (signed in free agency), and Nikita Gusev (trade from Vegas).
The shakeups have been well documented but haven’t particularly been translated into success. The Devils have struggled out to a 5-8-4 start, sitting last in the league with just 14 points through 17 games.
Taylor Hall has 15 points to lead the team across those 17 games but just 2 goals, and Hughes didn’t find the score sheet until the 7th game of the season. Since then he’s posted a total of 9 points.
PK Subban has just 5 points so far on the year.
Predictably, the Devils live at the bottom of the scoring chart, notching just 43 total markers on the year – 2nd worst in the league. They also allow the league’s second most goals per game at 3.65. That’s… not a great combination.
Hall – Hughes – Palmieri
Boqvist – Hischier – Bratt
Coleman – Zajac – Gusev
Wood – Zacha – Simmonds
Butcher – Subban
Greene – Severson
Mueller – Tennyson
Blackwood
Exorcise the Devils.
Truckvember charges on.
Go Pens.
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