The Pittsburgh Penguins will square off with the host Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night in a clash between two teams that are missing their starting goaltenders from last season.
The skidding Penguins will wrap up a four-game trip through Western Canada against Vancouver, which will bid for its fourth straight win.
Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko was a Vezina Trophy finalist last season, but the team’s best player is nursing a knee injury. There is no clear date on when he might return.
Two-time All-Star goalie Tristan Jarry, who signed a five-year contract extension with the Penguins this past summer, has struggled early in the season. He was sent back to Pittsburgh on Thursday to fine-tune the details of his game.
Kevin Lankinen, who signed a one-year contract with Vancouver in September, has carried most of the workload in the young season.
The Penguins are auditioning rookie Joel Blomqvist, who made 46 saves in Friday’s 4-0 loss to the host Edmonton Oilers. It was a valiant effort by the 22-year-old Blomqvist for Pittsburgh, who have lost four straight games overall.
“He’s really stepped up to every challenge we’ve given him to this point,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s played really well in the games that he’s played in. He’s a very athletic goalie. Moves east-west extremely well. He’s deserving of the net.”
Blomqvist did his best to give his team a chance to get back into Friday’s game, but the Penguins couldn’t solve Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.
The Canucks continued their recent good fortune with a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.
Danton Heinen scored twice in the first period for Vancouver. J.T. Miller collected a goal and two assists, and Conor Garland had one of each in the win.
Lankinen stymied his former club throughout the contest but was especially sharp in the scoreless second period.
This will be the beginning of a three-game homestand for Vancouver, which had its team chemistry challenged during Wednesday’s practice after two of its star offensive player got into a testy exchange.
Miller and Elias Pettersson traded low chops after a heated puck-battle drill. Miller added an extra crosscheck for good measure before they were separated.
Vancouver’s three-game winning streak has followed a three-game skid (0-1-2) to begin the season.
“We are chipping away at our game,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “There is stuff we are getting better at and stuff we have to work on. It is still early in the season.
“We have been scoring more goals the last few games and getting some depth scoring.”
The Penguins are still paying the price of their recent win-now mentality, which also served to mortgage their future. Luckily, they are still getting production from core veterans such as Evgeni Malkin, captain Sidney Crosby and defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Malkin is enjoying an early-season resurgence with 11 points in his first nine games. If he maintains that pace, he will have no trouble surpassing last season’s total of 67 points.
Crosby is second in team scoring behind Malkin with seven points in nine games.
–Field Level Media