After playing Bruins and limping Sabres, Penguins get their crack at scuffling Devils
For weeks, Penguins fans eagerly anticipated the team’s first crack at the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Just about everybody else in the East Division had a chance to beat up on them. And the Penguins needed their turn.
Well, they got it, and the Pens went two-for-two late last week, beating Buffalo 5-2 on Thursday night. Then blanking them 3-0 on Saturday.
Now Mike Sullivan’s club gets the division’s other bottom feeder, the New Jersey Devils for the first time Thursday night. Faceoff is at 7 p.m. in Newark. The teams will rematch on Saturday at 1 p.m. Then they’ll play each other again in Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
New Jersey is 9-13-4. Only the Sabres (6) and the Anaheim Ducks (8) have fewer wins than the Devils do. Granted, the team has only played 26 games so far after some early covid-19-related rescheduling issues. But they are still plodding along so far this year, winning in regulation just twice in their last 10 games.
Special teams have been a real problem for Devils head coach Lindy Ruff. The club has a power play which is scoring at a meager 13.3% rate, 28th in the league. And its penalty kill is only stopping opposing power plays at a 71.3% pace. Only the Nashville Predators (68%) and Detroit Red Wings (70.9%) have been worse so far this year.
The Devils also allow a lot of shots, and they don’t stop them at a very good clip. Their shots against (31.2 per game) and their team save percentage (.904) are both 21st in the league. And their goals against average of 3.12 is 20th.
New Jersey had lost four in a row before finally beating — you guessed it — Buffalo 3-2 on Tuesday night. That said, the Penguins are coming off a 2-1 loss themselves to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. And they may be playing Thursday’s game with some depth issues at center. Evgeni Malkin’s status is unknown thanks to a lower body injury he suffered in that loss to the Bruins. And Teddy Blueger will be out for a while with an upper body ailment of some sort.
TribLive Penguins beat writer Seth Rorabaugh joins me for Thursday’s “Breakfast with Benz” hockey podcast. We discuss the matchup in New Jersey, the team’s injury concerns, the loss to Boston, fallout from Brandon Tanev’s controversial hit, and memories of Johan Hedberg’s debut which was 20 years ago this week.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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