HEY! WE don’t seem to mostly suck anymore. The West Coast road trip went pretty well, winning 2 of 3.

Crosby and Malkin notched 9 combined points in three games and Jarry got the shutout against the Sharts to cap erreything off! No real injuries to speak of… I’d say all-in-all the Pens are on the ‘upside’ of looking fair to midland at this early point in the season. Still too early to be considering parade routes but this group is becoming fun to watch and only mildly annoying in a couple of areas. Acciari, Lizotte we’re looking at yinz two : /

Tonight the Pens play host to the Vancooters who have an identical 4-2 record and have won their last 3 road games against Dallas, Chicago and Washington. Connor Garland had 6 points in these last 3 games and Quinn Huges had 4 points in the same stretch.

Both the Pens and Canucks currently hold 3rd place in each of their divisions, each with 8 points in 6 games played. Each team has a +3 Goal Diff. Each team is 1-1-0 at home and 3-1-0 on the road. On paper this looks to be a very even matchup. 3 of ‘Cooter’s’ top 9 are listed as Day to Day so, there’s that.

Teddy Blueger and Marcus Pettersson are a couple of ex-Pens who should be playing, although Blue is one of their top 9 listed as DTD and he will be a game-time decision. The Canucks also have something called a ‘Nils-Pettersson’ so, If I’m remembering my high school calculus, I think that means they cancel each other out. Silvos will hopefully get the start in goal against his old team. This should be a good game against equally matched teams but I’m giving the edge to the Pens because of… things.

SHART NOTES:

Jarry’s shutout, his 22’nd all time and 1st of this season, tied Tom Barrasso for the second-most in Penguins history, behind only MAF who’s got 44.

Letang assisted on Crosby’s goal for the 125th time in his career.

Crosby’s goal against Nedeljkovic was the 160th different goaltender he has scored against.

LGP