{"id":343186,"date":"2025-10-30T13:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/343186\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:13:11","slug":"game-preview-pittsburgh-penguins-minnesota-wild-10-30-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/343186\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Minnesota Wild 10\/30\/25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Who:<\/strong> <strong>Pittsburgh Penguins <\/strong>(7-2-2, 16 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division) @ <strong>Minnesota Wild <\/strong>(3-5-3, 9 points, 7th place Central Division)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>How to Watch<\/strong>: Broadcast in the local markets on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sportsnet North, streaming on ESPN+<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Pens\u2019 Path Ahead<\/strong>: It\u2019s on to Winnipeg (note the 3:00pm eastern start time) and then the Pens stay in Canada to play in Toronto on Monday night. After that is two days off before a meeting with Washington a week from tonight at PPG Paints.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Opponent Track<\/strong>: It\u2019s been tough sledding lately, the Wild have only won one game in the last two weeks (1-4-3 in the last eight games) and still have two more games at home after tonight in the midst of a six game home-stand. So far on it they\u2019ve lost to Utah on Saturday (6-2) and then dropped a pair of OT games on Sunday to the Sharks (6-5) and then Tuesday to the Jets (4-3).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Season Series:<\/strong> Minnesota makes the return trip to Pittsburgh in a few weeks on November 21st to finish out the season series. The teams split last season, the Pens won 3-1 last March in Minnesota but lost 5-3 to the Wild in Pittsburgh in October 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Hidden Stat:<\/strong> The Wild are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RussoHockey\/status\/1983571930302079317\">second in the NHL<\/a> this season in time spent trailing during games, at 309:32 in 11 contests. Often times they have not caught back up, sporting a matching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/stats\/teams?report=leadingtrailing&amp;reportType=season&amp;seasonFrom=20252026&amp;seasonTo=20252026&amp;gameType=2&amp;sort=lossTrailPeriod1&amp;page=0&amp;pageSize=50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">0-5-1 record <\/a>when trailing after the first and second periods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Kirill Kaprizov &#8211; Marco Rossi &#8211; Marcus Johansson<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Matt Boldy &#8211; Joel Eriksson Ek &#8211; Vladimir Tarasenko<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Marcus Foligno &#8211; Ryan Hartman &#8211; Vinnie Hinostroza<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Yakov Trenin &#8211; Danila Yurov &#8211; Tyler Pitlick<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jonas Brodin \/ Brock Faber<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jacob Middleton \/ Tyler Spurgeon<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Zeev Buium \/ David Jiricek<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Goalies: <\/strong>Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Potential scratches<\/strong>: Ben Jones, Daemon Hunt, Zach Bogosian<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Injured reserve: <\/strong>Mats Zuccarello, Nico Sturm<\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1nfb3k4i feuejx0 ls9zuh1\">\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">A couple of interesting new faces for the Pens to see for the first time; this is the first season in America for Yurov, 21, who was a first round pick in 2022 (selected three picks after Owen Pickering). Yurov was with Evgeni Malkin\u2019s hometown team Magnitogorsk prior to coming to the NHL\u2026Buium, 19, is an electric defenseman where the sky looks like the limit and Minnesota was probably lucky he hung around until the 12th pick in the 2024 draft.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Boldy would be a great pick for \u201csleeper player that might see their Q rating explode after the 2026 Olympics\u201d. He had some moments for Team USA at the Four Nations earlier this year and ought to be positioned for something of a star turn if he plays up to his capabilities.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Hot streak warning: veteran Marcus Johansson has four goals in the last five games. Zuccarello serves as Kaprizov\u2019s normal running buddy, but him being out hasn\u2019t much hurt the production of the top line recently. Johansson isn\u2019t an overwhelming player but manages to sneak in there as a supporting player and feed with the stars in this type of role.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Nice to see a Hinostroza sighting and him still kicking around the NHL at age-31 and now on his eighth NHL team. If you had to go back in the memory banks and guess Hinostroza\u2019s one season in the Pens\u2019 organization, what year was it? No cheating. Can you believe it was 2023-24? If so, great recall for journeymen to stick in your head. You could have told me he was with the team as far back as 2019 and I probably wouldn\u2019t have thought twice about it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"_1eezmj01\" href=\"https:\/\/platform.pensburgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2025\/10\/minwild.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0.87131367292226,0,98.257372654155,100\" data-pswp-height=\"733\" data-pswp-width=\"732.9999999999999\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img alt=\"\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"w91vxg0\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/minwild.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1nfb3k4i feuejx0 ls9zuh1\">\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Kaprizov turned head by signing the biggest contract in NHL history for $136 million over eight years (which kicks in for next season) and has gotten off to his expected start with a bevy of points. He\u2019s done well to produce seven ES points this season, and stayed above water with more goals for than goals allowed while on the ice at 5v5 and then has just feasted on the power play with 4 PPG and 8 overall points on the power play, which ranks second in the NHL behind Jack Eichel (9).<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">On the flip side, former Pens draft pick Gustavsson earned himself a $34 million extension for five years ($6.8m cap hit) and it\u2019s been tough going. At this point, that\u2019s more on the Minnesota defense than it is the netminder (note the two goalies have essentially identical GAA\u2019s, often cited as team input towards defense, and that number is very high) but he\u2019ll surely be looking to settle in and return to form as quickly as possible.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Spurgeon, the team captain, is off to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/stats\/skaters?reportType=season&amp;seasonFrom=20252026&amp;seasonTo=20252026&amp;gameType=2&amp;sort=a_plusMinus&amp;page=0&amp;pageSize=50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an early lead<\/a> for the informal green jacket award for the player with the worst plus\/minus (and therefore, best golf score). Plus\/minus has its problems and a lot is explained by the early season .879 PDO for Spurgeon, but it\u2019s always eye catching to see a player as well-regarded at him get off to a start where there\u2019s been 2 Goals For and 13 Goals Against with him on the ice at at 5v5.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">The Pens were reportedly interested in signing Tarasenko in the summer of 2024 though he opted to go with a different offer. That may be a blessing in disguise, Tarasenko, 33, has scored 12 goals in 91 games since the start of last season (he does have 26 assists, though) and is a far, far cry away from the player who regularly used to record 30+ goals in his prime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Filip Hallander &#8211; Sidney Crosby &#8211; Bryan Rust<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Anthony Mantha &#8211; Evgeni Malkin &#8211; Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Tommy Novak &#8211; Ben Kindel &#8211; Ville Koivunen<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Connor Dewar &#8211; Blake Lizotte &#8211; Noel Acciari<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Parker Wotherspoon \/ Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Owen Pickering \/ Matt Dumba<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Goalies: <\/strong>Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Potential Scratches:<\/strong> Philip Tomasino, Harrison Brunicke, Connor Clifton<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>IR:<\/strong> Kevin Hayes (upper body), Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body), Rickard Rakell (hand, out 6-8 weeks), Caleb Jones (lower body, out 6-8 weeks)<\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1nfb3k4i feuejx0 ls9zuh1\">\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">The Pens didn\u2019t practice yesterday following their back-to-back on Sunday\/Monday and the travel, so we\u2019ll stick with the same lines as last game for this projection. Obviously subject to change depending on what the team decides to do on the blue line.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Based on the rotation, it would be Jarry\u2019s turn in net tonight. Jarry has won his last three starts and is sporting a 2.01 GAA and .938 save% in this span going back to October 18th.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">As if there was any question (and there shouldn\u2019t have been), Crosby will not receive any <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KKurzNHL\/status\/1983560208967405908\">further punishment<\/a> from the NHL as a result of last game. The Pens\u2019 captain picked up a misconduct for leaving the bench after the final whistle of the third period, presumably to talk to the refs in the middle of the goat rodeo that Trevor Zegras started. Crosby didn\u2019t participate in anything physical and rightfully won\u2019t be in the crosshairs for further league action. He was unavailable for the shootout due to the misconduct, which is a more than punitive result.<\/li>\n<li class=\"feuejx1\">Should Kindel dresses tonight he will play in his 10th NHL game and trigger the start of his entry level contract. At that point, there would be no contractual reason for the Pens to assign him back to his junior team until he approaches his 40th game played (which then counts as a season towards his unrestricted free agency), but the team could elect to return him to the WHL for on-ice reasons if they so chose. To this point, Kindel has remained one of the team\u2019s more complete and consistent forwards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Game focus: Keep on rolling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The bottom right bar is why a common reaction to the Penguins this season is \u201cat least they\u2019re fun to watch again this season\u201d. Yeah, it\u2019s fun when the goals against go way down and the offense picks it up. And that\u2019s a 5v5 look that doesn\u2019t even incorporate a mostly fine PK (outside of a couple rough games) and a productive power play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The top right chart is possible the cause for concern when the goal share is way, way up (white line) even though they\u2019re dancing through the raindrops without getting wet in terms of how the play has gone. Of course it\u2019s refreshing to see a team convert on their chances while also getting quality goaltending, that makes for a beautiful brand of hockey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The big question is can it last? The answer is uncertain, but a key indicator will be to track the veterans. They will tell you all you need to know. Sidney Crosby is staying productive, but there was a point last week where he scored goals on five straight shots, obviously that doesn\u2019t last forever. Erik Karlsson has probably had about six or seven virtuoso performances and a handful of very poor ones, which version will show up? Evgeni Malkin was tied to the lead in assists and points as recently as Tuesday. If those three keep powering the team\u2019s engine, they can win on any night. Whether or not some of them have the mental focus and physical stamina to keep it up at an advanced age might be a different story (and I think we all know that there\u2019s minimal worry about Crosby in this regard..)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And, of course, the other big factor is goalie. Any time you\u2019re talking about a top-5 goaltending team, you\u2019re probably talking about a team that\u2019s looking good in the standings. That certainly applies to the Penguins right now. The team didn\u2019t really have much business in position to steal a win on Tuesday, except they were in that position mostly due to Arturs Silovs. Jarry has played equally as well. Given the state of the defense, that could be one of the more unexpected or surprising developments of the season so far. Quality goaltending will always even the playing field, though it is worth wondering if at some point the team will ask too much of the goalies. The Pens are allowing an average of 31.0 shots per game (fourth highest in the league). It wouldn\u2019t hurt to stop that trend, though that could be a matter where best efforts of the skaters might not be capable of tightening things up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (7-2-2, 16 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division) @ Minnesota Wild (3-5-3, 9 points, 7th place&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":343187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[114893,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-343186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-game-preview","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115463298276115286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}