Game Preview: Vancouver Canucks @ Pittsburgh Penguins 11/27/2024

Thanksgiving Eve hockey!

Who: Vancouver Canucks (11-6-3, 25 points, 3rd place Pacific Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (7-12-4, 18 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:30 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Locally on Sportsnet Pittsburgh, steaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: Today is the start of three games in four days, the Pens are in Boston on Friday night (note the special 6:30 start time!) and then back at home on Saturday to host the Calgary Flames. Pittsburgh then remains at home a while longer, the Florida Panthers are up after that next Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.

Opponent Track: Vancouver got out to a great start but since Nov. 7th they’ve traded wins and losses regularly going: W-L-W-L-W-L-L-W for a 4-4-0 record prior to last night where they had to play in Boston and then travel to Pittsburgh in the wee hours of the morning. It was a good night in Beantown, Jake DeBrusk scored a goal in his first game against his former team and Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves in a 2-0 victory.

Season Series: The Penguins already played out in Vancouver, losing a 4-3 game where the Canucks scored four times in the second period to pull out in front to stay. Tonight will be the conclusion of the PIT/VAN 2024-25 season series.

Hidden Stat: If newly acquired Philip Tomasino makes his Penguins debut, he will be the eighth player to do so this season (stick tap Pens PR).

Hidden Stat 2.0: The Canucks have an 8-1-0 record in road games this season.

Getting to know the Canucks

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Kiefer Sherwood

Dakota Joshua - Pius Suter - Conor Garland

Brock Boeser - Teddy Blueger - Danton Heinen

Arshdeep Bains - Aatu Raty - Nils Hoglander

DEFENSEMEN

Quinn Hughes / Filip Hronek

Carson Soucy /Tyler Myers

Erik Brannstrom / Noah Juulsen

Goalies: Arturs Silovs in net tonight? (Kevin Lankinen played yesterday)

IR: Thatcher Demko, Derek Forbort

Non-Roster: J.T. Miller (indefinite leave, personal)

Potential Scratches: Vincent Desharnais, Max Sasson

—Vancouver has been in hold on mode lately. The Canucks eked out a 4-3 win in Ottawa on Saturday despite being down four of their top players (Boeser, Demko were injured, Miller is on leave and Hughes got ejected in the first period). The players were proud of the “character” win to find a way to get a result despite missing so many of their top players.

—The tide looks like it’s turning in a positive way in that regard, Boeser had been out with a concussion since November 7th and was able to make his comeback last night against Boston.

—There’s positive news on Demko too. The goalie has been out for going on eight months since Game 1 of the playoffs with a rare to hockey type of knee tear that has sounded like a frustrating time for all. Demko is with the team on this long Eastern road trip and reports are starting to trickle out with information he might play in the upcoming games. That won’t be something the Pens will have to worry about tonight, but will be welcome for the Canucks who have had to get by with their second and third string goalies for the first quarter of this season.

—Tough luck for Max Sasson; the undrafted 24-year old scored a goal in his NHL debut (with a cool moment along the way) but coach Rick Tocchet had to reluctantly pull Sasson out of the lineup as a scratch to fit Boeser back in last night.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

Note: does not include last night’s game against Boston

—Elias Pettersson’s stats don’t jump out after a slow start, but the arrow is pointing up. The talented Swede had 4G+6A in the last seven games prior to last night’s game against Boston.

—Kiefer Sherwood is the type of mid-level free agent signing ($1.5m cap hit for two years) that every team searches for. The recent absences of Miller and Boeser put Sherwood into a bigger role and he has come through with three goals in as many games prior to last night.

—Sherwood is close in points to the high-profile free agent signing of Jake DeBrusk ($5.5 million for four years) but DeBrusk is starting to get some traction with his 2G+1A night recently in Ottawa and the huge eventual game-winning goal in Boston last night. The Canucks are going to need him to acclimate and get an uptick in his production as the year goes along.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Bryan Rust - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Anthony Beauvillier - Evgeni Malkin - Philip Tomasino

Drew O’Connor - Blaze Lizotte - Michael Bunting

Matt Nieto - Noel Acciari - Kevin Hayes

DEFENSEMEN

Owen Pickering / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Matt Grzelcyk

Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany, Jesse Puljujarvi

IR: Cody Glass (concussion),

—Welcome to Pittsburgh, Philip Tomasino! The youngster probably figures to be in the low TOI role but could have a chance to make a great first impression if he gets some shifts with Malkin.

—Speaking of that role, Owen Pickering has been listed as first pair for the second straight game, but only played 12:09 last game against Utah. The Pens are bringing him along slowly, even if he is moving up the lineup to get some shifts with Letang it’s not yet on a full-time basis, natural enough for a 20-year old with four career NHL games.

—Lizotte was working with the third line at practice yesterday and the waiving of Valtteri Puustinen opens up space on the active roster for Lizotte to return to the 23-player roster. The Pens will find out at 2pm today if Puustinen clears and can be assigned to the AHL or if he’s moving onto a new organization.

Big Three

The Pens’ big boys have had it going on against Vancouver lately. From the team:

The Penguins have points in seven of their last 10 matchups against Vancouver dating back to Oct. 27, 2018 (6-3-1). During that stretch, Pittsburgh has tallied four or more goals six times.

The Penguins enter tomorrow with points in five-straight home games against the Canucks.

The trio of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have averaged an even 1.00 points per game against Vancouver, combining for 69 points (27G-42A) in 69 total games.

Points Versus Vancouver, PIT Big Three

Player GP G A PTS

Evgeni Malkin 23 13 16 29
Sidney Crosby 24 12 12 24
Kris Letang 22 2 14 16
Totals 69 27 42 69

Thankful times

Can the Pens roll back the clock to the good old days on a special night? One of the nicer little wrinkles in the NHL schedule is the (near) annual Thanksgiving Eve Pittsburgh home game. It’s memory has been enhanced due to the results too, the Pens have a 7-2-2 record in the Sidney Crosby-era on home games the night before Thanksgiving.

• 2023: 1-0 loss to NY Rangers
• 2022: 2-1 (SO) win over Calgary
• 2021: 4-1 win over Vancouver
• 2019: 8-6 win over Vancouver
• 2017: 2-5 loss to Vancouver
• 2015: 4-3 (OT) win over St. Louis
• 2014: 4-3 (OT) win over Toronto
• 2013: 6-5 (SO) win over Toronto
• 2011: 2-3 (OT) loss to STL
• 2009: 3-1 win over Montreal
• 2006: 3-4 (SO) loss to Boston

The Pens won road games in NYI (2008) and Buffalo (2010) on the fourth Wednesday of November for the rare away game on this day on the calendar.