Penguins

Stop the Skid? Penguins vs. Kraken, Gm 12: Lines, Notes, & How to Watch

Published

1 year ago

November 5, 2022

Pittsburgh Penguins game, Seattle Kraken

The Pittsburgh Penguins (4-5-2) have tied their worst winless streak of the Mike Sullivan era, and one of the worst since Sidney Crosby was a rookie. The Penguins winless streak is six games (0-5-1), including three blown multi-goal leads. At practice on Friday, Sullivan attempted to lighten the mood with some fun drills, but the Penguins must win games soon. They will face the surprising Seattle Kraken (6-4-2) at PPG Paints Arena.

The puck drops just after 7 p.m.

Seattle beat the Penguins at Climate Pledge Arena last Saturday, 3-1.

In a PHN exclusive, Kris Letang copped to his struggles but admitted illness has been dogging him for nearly two weeks, beginning in Edmonton. Not coincidentally, he was a minus-3 in that game. Read the full story from Kris Letang.

The Penguins are currently near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and out of a playoff spot. They are seventh in the Metro Division, leading only Columbus. The Penguins trail the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils by seven and six points, respectively.

The Penguins could get Teddy Blueger back into the lineup. The center has not yet played this season after suffering an upper-body injury in training camp. He was placed on LTIR and is eligible to be activated today.

Sidney Crosby had dropped from the third-leading scorer with 11 points in six games to 41st. He has just one point in his last five games and is a minus-6 in that time.

The Penguins’ turnovers remain sky-high, while their penalty-killing unit sinks lower. Seattle has the fifth-best power play in the league, but both teams’ PKs are in the back of the pack.

Seattle has won three of four games and four of their last five, beating expected playoff teams such as the Calgary Flames and Minnesota Wild (and the Penguins). Jaden Schwartz leads the Kraken with 10 points (5-5-10). Former Penguins forward Jared McCann (who was traded to Toronto in the days before being selected by Seattle in the expansion draft) has eight points (5-3-8) in 11 games.

Seattle has five former Penguins on its roster, including McCann, Daniel Sprong, Brandon Tanev, and defensemen Jamie Oleksiak and Justin Schultz.

Expected Pittsburgh Penguins Lines:

LW	C	RW
Jake Guentzel	Sidney Crosby	Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker	Evgeni Malkin	Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen	Ryan Poehling	Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn	Sam Poulin	Drew O'Connor

LD	RD
Brian Dumoulin	Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson	Jeff Petry
P.O Joseph	Jan Rutta

Goalie
Tristan Jarry
Casey DeSmith

Expected Seattle Kraken Lines, per Puckpedia.com:

Burakovsky-Wennberg-Bjorkstrand

Schwartz-Beniers-Eberle

Gourde-Wright-Tanev

Donato-Geekie-Sprong

Defense:

Dunn-Larsson

Oleksiak-Schultz

Soucy-Borgen

Goalies:

Martin Jones

Joey Daccord

Special Teams:

Penguins Power Play: 9-42, 21.4%, 14th

Penguins Penalty Kill: 11-38, 71.1%, 29th

Kraken Power Play: 12-43, 27.9%, 5th

Kraken Penalty Kill: 11-39, 71.8%, 28th

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Notes

*Despite the winless streak, the Penguins have points in every home game (3-0-1).

*Jan Rutta leads the Penguins at plus-8 and is tied for 14th best in the NHL.

*Brian Dumoulin’s 26 blocked shots are first on Pittsburgh and rank 15th in the NHL.

*Milestone waiting: Sidney Crosby (899A) remains one assist away from becoming the 20th player in NHL history to record 900 career assists.

*Jason Zucker has started well. He has eight points (2-6-8) in nine games this season.

*Zucker is two points shy of 300 in his career (157-141-298). The second-round pick (59th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft would be the 19th of his draft class to reach 300 points.

*Jake Guentzel passed Martin Straka for 10th on the Penguins’ all-time goal scorers list (166). Guentzel trails Chris Kunitz for 9th (169).

How to Watch:

TV: AT&T SportsNet; Radio: 105.9 The X

Penguins Bets

First, get a free $50 bet with your first signup, plus a signup bonus of up to $1000 here.

Spread: Penguins -1.5 (+120). Kraken +1.5 (-140).

Moneyline: Penguins (-195). Kraken +165

So, oddsmakers think the Penguins have a slight chance to cover but will win. We agree on the winning part. This slide cannot continue, can it?? The Penguins handed it to the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres before crumbling.

Prediction: With Tristan Jarry in the net and an angry locker room needing a victory, the Penguins will beat the Kraken. Use the $50 free bet, or if you take the Moneyline, use the national DraftKings promo: a $5 Moneyline bet wins $200.