Game Day: Canadiens vs Penguins – Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Jordan Lambe
Pre-game Notes and Quotes
Carey Price will miss at least another week of action due to his lower-body issue.
Max Pacioretty: “[It’s] an opportunity for [Condon] to show what he can do and he’s done that so far. It’s a little bit of motivation for us as well to open up some eyes. We’ve done a good job at it so far, but we’ve got to keep improving.”
Pascal Dupuis on his recent trip to the hospital: “It was something I saw on my leg that didn’t seem right, we play a contact sport. I blocked a shot or got slashed. Everything happens so fast that I don’t even remember how it happened. I just had to make sure”. He is now listed as day-to-day, and the issue wasn’t related to the previous blood clot that sidelined him for most of last season.
The Penguins have scored a power-play goal in each of the past five games, bringing their overall power-play percentage to 15.9 and placing them 20th in the NHL.
The Canadiens place in a tie for third in the league in goals against with 29 as the Penguins have had one fewer goal scored against them (in two more games) and placed second.
The Canadiens have yet to be dethroned as the NHL’s top offensive team, as they currently have 59 goals in 16 games. The Penguins on the other hand, are a far cry from what many people predicted for this upcoming season; they currently sit 26th in the league with 31 goals.
The Penguins will auction the camo jerseys worn by them during warm-ups starting Monday, November 16 at pittsburghpenguins.com. Proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and the Mario Lemieux Foundation’s “Austin’s Military Playroom Project”.
Matchup
Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA. | November 9, 7:00 PM ET | TV: NBCSN, SN, RDS
2015-16 statistics
PENGUINS
CANADIENS
18 (4th)
Points (Eastern Con. rank)
27 (1st)
9-5-0
Record
13-2-1
4-2-0
Home
7-0-1
5-3-0
Road
6-2-0
8-2-0
Last 10
7-2-1
2.21
G/G
3.69
2.00
GA/G
1.81
15.9
PP%
27.3
88.6
PK%
88.9
49.3
CF%*
53.0
52.8
CF60*
56.1
54.3
CA60*
49.7
*Advanced statistics: Score adjusted, even strength. CF%: Corsi for percentage of total CF60: Corsi For/60 minutes CA60: Corsi Against/60 minutes (via War on Ice)
Projected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
David Desharnais has had a surge in offense over the past five games as he has three goals and seven points. He has also fired the puck on net eight times and has a plus-8 rank over that span. Never one to contribute a huge amount of hits or blocked shots (12 and eight respectively so far this season), he is still worthy of a roster spot on almost any fantasy team right now.
As many of the Penguins’ forwards are slumping to start the season, Patric Hornqvist is no exception. With just four points over the first 14 games of the season, Hornqvist is a great “buy-low” candidate as he is almost guarantee to turn it around once the Penguins offense starts to click. Hornqvist is a high volume shooter (as apparent 3.26 and 3.44 shots per game average over the past two seasons respectively) and will eventually start playing on a line with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin again; an ideal situation. Hornqvist has been adding more value in the Hits category as he already has 41 hits in 14 games (he only had 87 in 64 games last season) and is on par to demolish his career high. Try to target him in a trade, or wait it out if you currently own him, but with only two games on Wednesday night, he should be on your starting roster.
Top scorers for the Penguins at home this season are:
Evgeni Malkin (7 points in 6 games)
Sidney Crosby (5 points in 6 games)
Kris Letang (4 points in 6 games)
Top scorers for the Canadiens on the road this season are:
Andrei Markov (10 points in 8 games)
Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and P. K. Subban (all with 8 points in 8 games)
