Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (14-8-4, 32 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ Buffalo Saber (12-13-1, 25 Points, 7 place Atlantic Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. East
how to watch: AT&T Sports Network Pittsburgh (ATTSN-PT) in viewing area Western PA, MSG-B for the New Yorker, Sling TV, ESPN+
enemy track: If you like goals, you’ve come to the right place. Buffalo is 3-1-1 in their last five games, including two straight wins — but the real story has been all the goals in their games lately. In those last five games, the Sabers have scored a whopping 28 goals (5.6 per game) and returned most of that by giving up 23 (4.6). Bad time to be a goalkeeper but fun time if you like seeing goals. Nothing exemplifies this better than Tage Thompson’s stunning five-goal game on Wednesday en route to a mighty 9-4 win for Buffalo over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Pins way ahead: The same two teams meet in Pittsburgh tomorrow night, and then the Pens host the Dallas Stars on Monday. After that, next week is pretty easy for the Pens, with just one game from Dec. 13-17 (coming next Thursday 12/15 in Florida).
season series: These teams previously met in Buffalo on November 2, the Pens leading 3-1 early in the third period but giving up five goals in a row to eventually lose 6-3 to the Sabers. That night marked near rock bottom for the Pens in their sixth straight loss. Tonight and tomorrow are the final two BUF/PIT games of the season.
Getting to know the sabers
SB Nation counterpart: Die by the Blade
Possible lines
FORWARD
Jeff Skinner – Tage Thompson – Alex Cloth
JJ Peterka – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn
Victor Olofsson – Tyson Jost – Casey Mittelstadt
Zemgus Girgenson – Peyton Krebs – Kyle Okposo
DEFENDER
Mattias Samuelsson and Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power and Henri Jokiharju
Will Bryson/Lawrence Pilut
Goalkeeper: Craig Anderson or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Scratch: Casey Fitzgerald, Vinnie Hinostroza, Rasmus Asplund
AND: Ben Bishop, Ilya Lyubushkin, Eric Comrie
—Buffalo’s young team continues to grow together, they have no defenders over the age of 26 and only two forwards (Okposo and Skinner) over the age of 30. The core of this team from Power and Dahlin and Samuelsson on the blue line through to Peterka and Cozens and Krebs and Quinn up front are fine in that 20-22 age range. In a few years these players (plus Thompson and Tuch) could really peak if they hit with the right support pieces.
statistics
via hockeydb
—How about the timeless Craig Anderson? He’s ticking on at the ripe old age of 41, is easily the oldest goaltender in the league (with Marc-Andre Fleury at 3.5) and is still doing very well considering all things Buffalo’s defensive chaos . Anderson was drafted in 1999, just months after the birth of his current goalkeeping partner. Pretty wild.
rise of the days
As late as the truncated 2021 season, Tage Thompson looked just like a faltering player whose career was neutral. He averaged 8G+6A in 38 games with the Sabers. Now, at the end of 2022, he has a five-goal game under his belt. That’s a remarkable rise for a player who didn’t make it until he was 24 but once he did, has become one of the league’s top high-end offensive players.
In one of coach Don Granato’s greatest moves, he switched Thompson from a winger to a center for the 2021-22 season, and it was a career start after that.
Thompson’s ability to develop an elite finish almost overnight and from virtually nothing was one of the most unexpected, and frankly, amazing player additions the NHL has seen in quite some time. Just 16 months ago it would have been unimaginable to even remotely imagine that this could be a player who will start a 36-goal campaign in 2021-22 and then move on with 21G in 26 games by the start of 2022-23.
Wednesday’s goals give a good idea of what kind of player he is. There’s the big shot from the left, but Thompson can also use his backhand and has a lot of coordination in his hands and feet to run in, use Dekes and then lift the puck into the net from close range.
head to head
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The Sabers have lived life to the extreme this season. They pump in tons of goals and shots and create almost endless chances. Except that it ends because they concede a lot of expected and actual goals and also don’t have a great goalkeeping performance. They are great on power play but weak on PK.
It makes for fun and entertainment as a young team full of rising stars spread their wings in the NHL, but to take the next step and get better as a team, they need to learn and play the puck with more balance and discipline and improve defensively and in the net a ton.
Puck management is always important, but it should be paramount for the Penguins tonight when it comes to making the right decisions in the neutral zone and also having as little turnover as possible in the middle of the ice. Getting pucks deep and staying in good defensive form is a must against Buffalo because this is a team prepared for counterattacks and excited to spring up for rush attempts in the game. Buffalo’s two best lines are among the best so far this year when it comes to getting shots off the rush in the entire league, and their first line is their best. This is a team that will sell out skipping the game and trying to spawn attacks out of haste.
And now for the pens…
Possible lines of play
Forward
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker Evgeni Malkin Bryan Rust
Brock McGinn, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen
Danton Heinen-Teddy Blueger-Josh Archibald?
defense
Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry
Brian Dumoulin / Jan Rutta
PO Joseph / Chad Ruhwedel
Goalkeeper: Tristan Jarry Casey DeSmith
Scratch: Kris Letang (stroke), Ryan Poehling
—Archibald received a maintenance day and was off the ice yesterday. That’s usually Mike Sullivan talk for players who should be able to play the next day, but the Penguins also have no reserves if Archibald is too down to leave – Ryan Poehling was training with a non-contact injury and probably isn’t ready for it play.
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