Game Preview: Arizona Coyotes @ Pittsburgh Penguins 10/13/2022 – Lines, how to watch

October 13, 2022 Abraham Smith

Who: Arizona Coyotes (0-0-0) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (0-0-0)

When: 7:00 p.m. East

how to watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, ESPN+ elsewhere (Bally Sports Arizona for away broadcast)

enemy track: It’s also the first game of the season for Arizona, starting with a six-game road trip. They will be in Boston for their next game on Saturday.

Pins way ahead: Below is the team’s schedule for the month of October. The Pens start with three of their first four home games, including the next game Saturday night against Tampa. Then things change after Saturday with 14 of the next 18 games for the Pens being played away. They’ll also knock out a western swing early in the season at the end of the month.

season series: The pins make their journey to the An interesting and perhaps embarrassing new home for sure the Coyotes on Jan. 8 to wrap up the two-game non-conference streak between PIT and AZ this season.

Meet the coyotes

SBN Counterpart Blog: Five for howling

Possible lines

FORWARD

Clayton Keller, Travis Boyd, Nick Schmaltz

Zack Kassian, Barrett Hayton, Lawson Crouse

Nick Ritchie-Jack McBain-Christian Fischer

Liam O’Brien – Nick Bjugstad – Dylan Guenther

DEFENDER

Shayne Gostisbehere / Dysin Mayo

JJ Moser / Conor Timmins

Patrik Nemeth / Troy Stecher

Goalkeeper: Karel Vejmelka Connor Ingram

Scratch: Matias Maccelli, Juuso Valimaki, and Josh Brown

IR: Andrew Ladd, Jacob Chychrun, Bryan Little (unofficially retired)

– I really don’t even know if these lines are correct, I guess we’ll see! It would make sense for newly acquired Valimaki (via waivers) to join the lineup, perhaps at the expense of Nemeth.

—Tonight was supposed to be 19-year-old Dylan Guenther’s NHL debut. The No. 9 overall winner of 2021 has the squad set up for a nine-game audition before deciding whether to keep him for the entire season and use the first year of his entry-level contract, or send him back to the juniors for the rest of the year.

– This team already has two Conor/Connors and it looks like they will want to add another Connor to the organization next season.

– Nice to see former Penguin Nick Bjugstad staying in the league for another season. Bjugstad had seven goals and 13 points in 57 games with Minnesota last season.

—Clayton Keller is expected to play his first game after breaking his leg on March 30.

goalkeeper focus

This is Karel Vejmelka’s second season in the NHL and with the Coyotes. As you can see above, at 6ft 4in and a whopping 224lbs, Vejmelka quite naturally fills much of the net. Vejmelka, a 2015 Nashville fifth-round pick, was not signed by the Preds and joined Arizona as a free agent in 2021. All in all, he had an OK rookie season in 2021-22 as the number one goalkeeper on a bad team. Vejmelka appeared in 52 games for the Coyotes with a 13-32-3 record and added a shutout, a 3.68 GAA and an .898 save%.

At times, the Czech native has performed well — like in the month of March, when he posted a 4-5-1 record and a solid 0.921% savings rate on the month. At other times, Vejmelka was clearly overwhelmed and unable to help his overwhelmed team. One such night was on January 25 against Pittsburgh. Vejmelka gave up six goals in 36 shots and ended up in a 6-3 loss in what is his only game against the Penguins to date.

Vejmelka also catches with the ‘wrong’ hand (right), which may put the Pens off when they see a keeper like this for the first time in a while. On the other hand, the goalie’s catch hand might not matter on the other side.

Arizona’s other goaltender, 25-year-old Connor Ingram, has just been waived by the Coyotes and has all three NHL games under his belt.

And now for the pens…

Projected Lines

Forward

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker Evgeni Malkin Bryan Rust

Danton Heinen – Jeff Carter – Kasperi Kapanen

Brock McGinn, Ryan Poehling, Josh Archibald

defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry

Pierre Olivier Joseph / Jan Rutta

Goalkeeper: Tristan Jarry Casey DeSmith

Scratch: Teddy Blueger (everyday injuries), Chad Ruhwedel

– Blueger wore a non-contact jersey at Pens practice yesterday and doesn’t look far from playing, but it likely won’t be in time for tonight’s opening night. Blueger called his ongoing minor injury “frustrating‘ yesterday, admitting he doesn’t really know when he can return.

– Meanwhile, it was PO Joseph pretty much running for the first time ever in drills with Rutta, who appeared to be the new third pair to start the season, although not even Joseph knew exactly what today (or tomorrow) for its current status.

player corner

OK, for fun (or until losing too much money gets embarrassing) I’ll bet $10 on every game and see how it goes. In that game, while looking forward to the opener, I actually made two bets on DraftKings:

$5.00 if over 6.5 goals in game (+100 to pay $10.00)
$5.00 on over 0.5 goals in 0:00 – 9:59 of the first half (-165 to pay $8.03)

6.5 goals is a lot, but the action and reward are too good to pass up when the mighty Pens play Arizona (Pittsburgh scored a total of 10 goals in two games against AZ last season). For the second bet, only one of the two teams needs to score in the first half of the first half to receive a payout.

Start them

Here’s the story of the pens for season-opening games at PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh is 7-4-1 in all-time home opens in this building.

10/13/2022: ? against Arizona
10/16/2021: 4-2 win over Chicago
Jan 17, 2021: 4-3 (SO) win over Washington
3 Oct 2019: 3-1 loss to Buffalo
10/4/2018: 7:6 win (OT) against Washington
Oct. 4, 2017: 4:5 (OT) loss to St. Louis
10/13/2016: 3-2 (SO) win against Washington
13/10/2015: 2-3 loss to Montreal
October 9, 2014: 6-4 win over Anaheim
3 Oct 2013: 3-0 win over New Jersey
23 January 2013: 5-2 loss to Toronto
10/11/2011: 4-2 win against Florida
7 Oct 2010: Loss 2-3 to Philadelphia

After a long summer, a new season begins in Pittsburgh. For the 55th time, the Pens are writing a chapter in their history in the NHL. Where this ends remains to be seen, but the story begins in earnest with the beginning, which comes today.

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