^{Utah visits the original kid while he’s still a Yinzer}

While this will be strange to hear, Utah is out of town on road trip this week. They bring their one game unbeaten streak into Pittsburgh today to face the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.

Pittsburgh is coming into this game after being shellshocked by the San Jose Sharks yesterday. Entering the 3rd period with a 4-1 lead, the Penguins added insult to injury 5 minutes in. With a commanding 4 goal lead, they proceeded to give up 4 goals in 11 minutes, en route to a loss in OT.

Surely a gut-punch like that will carry over well to Utah. There will be no overflowing anger at that game whatsoever.

What can we expect against Pittsburgh today?

Well, aside from an angry Pittsburg team, we’re going to see one that’s a little bit unusual. Key pieces are out, traded, or just coming back from injury.

Evgeni Malkin is out, which means the Penguins are missing a key centerpiece – literally – forcing 18 year old Ben Kindel back into the lineup in the 2C spot.

Rickard Rakell will be back for his second day after missing 20 straight games before Saturday. His usage was especially heavy, even considering overtime. Despite being out for 20 games, he clocked 22 minutes of ice time and despite not being on the scoresheet, had an impressive day.

Netminder Tristan Jarry just made his way over to Edmonton to be Stuart Skinner 2.0, while Skinner comes back to Pittsburgh to become Jarry 2.0. Skinner, however, has not joined the team as of end of day yesterday, and at time of writing is not expected to start. With their expected new 1A goaltender Arturs Silovs starting yesterday, netminder duties will likely fall to 21 year old rookie, Sergei Murashov.

So, we have a shakeup in net, a shakeup with centers, a shakeup on the main line, but haven’t talked about the main guy yet.

Sid, “the Kid” Crosby, entered the league and was a starter for the Penguins before a few Mammoth players were even born yet. “The Kid” has 21 years invested in the Penguins, with that tenure, several Cups and many more accolades. A guaranteed first ballot Hall of Famer, Crosby has had a staying power that few will ever match. At 38 years old, Crosby is still producing more than 1 point per game.

However, Crosby’s time may be coming to an end in Pittsburgh. As the Penguins may turn to a complete retool/rebuild, a superstar like Crosby would fetch a king’s ransom and then some. However, with as unlikely a start as Pittsburgh had, the Penguins still may believe they’re in playoff contention and keep the Kid around.

What about the team as a whole?

The Penguins are absolutely deadly on the power play. The Penguins Power Play is nearly 33% efficient, and tops in the entire league. 27 of their 95 goals come with the man advantage. They are tied for top 3 in the league with shorthanded goals, though, as they put a premium on offense at the expense of all else.

The one downside of Pittsburgh’s amazing power play for them? They don’t draw a lot of penalties. They’ve only had 82 total opportunities – one of the fewest in the league, though they have less games played than most other teams. If you account game by game, they’re getting about 2.7 PPs a game – 8th worst rate in the NHL. On the flip side, Utah gives up almost identical amounts of power plays against (2.76) meaning Crosby’s Pens will get 2-3 looks on average tonight, and at 33% PP, that’s basically one expected goal from special teams.

Pittsburgh’s goaltending has been great as well, a top 10 unit – though that changes with Jarry moving. Sergei Murashov has played just 4 games, but has given up just 7 total goals and is already averaging a .913 for the year. Small sample size, but it’s what we have to work with, meaning he’s even better than the standard that put the Penguins in the top 10.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Kid 2 Kid Sidney Crosby in 30 games has 19 goals, tied for 4th with 2+ fewer games than those ahead of him. He scores equally as well on the power play as even strength (9 vs. 11 respectively), and cranks out assists left and right as well. Combined, Crosby has 34 points in just 30 games.

Crosby, though, is still fighting Father Time. Not as quick as he used to be – which is still fast – he is human and can still end up behind a play from a quick skater or two. Despite such a prolific output of points, his total player plus/minus rating is negative.

Sadly, Utah’s best speedster is out for weeks, but still have some good wheels on players like Sean Durzi and JJ Peterka. Those wheels can make Crosby – already leading the team with 28 penalty minutes – sit for 2.

Crosby in the box means no Crosby on ice, so that alone is addition by subtraction.

Being able to get the kids to outskate the kid to create offense, and keeping the kid as much in check as possible, is critical in finding a way towards a W today.

Get to Clubbin’! While professionals can turn the page on a bad loss or a major win just as quickly, there could be both lingering fatigue and frustration from the San Jose game. At one point, the Penguins had a 99.8% chance to win the game (according to Moneypuck) and, well, didn’t.

The Penguins are coming in from a back-to-back, but unlike the Mammoth’s schedule all year, this second half is being played at home. In fact, this is the 5th Penguins back-to-back series, and each one has had at least one home game. Tonight is the 2nd home game in a row. This is also just their 31st game – tied for 2nd fewest.

So, there are some weird items at play. Fatigue from a back to back, could be mitigated from being at home (AGAIN), a lesser schedule could keep fatigue down, but a disheartening loss after a near lock of a win could be a sore spot.

Get on the board early, pressure with the quick and aggressive forecheck through the first 10 minutes of the game, and this could expose any lingering issues mentally with the team – opening advantages for Utah to pounce.

Repaint your home PPG Paint Arena provides a great backdrop and amazing arena to play in. However, like a few other odd situations this year, the Penguins find themselves with a significantly higher road win and production rate than at home.

It’s hard to point out reasons why, except to infer that the back to back games have been adding to some difficulty for the team.

Like the Rangers and Kings before them, the Penguins seem to be Jekyll and Hyde with how they appear in games at home and away. An early counter to Crosby and the guaranteed power plays can help turn the beast back into just a man – a man that can disappoint people in his own home in time for the holidays.

I do not speak from personal experience here, and invite you to not speak to my wife or daughter about this.

Projected Lineups:
1AM no lineups announced. Will try and update for the game, but leaving lines as they were left on Friday.

TUSKS UP!