The Pittsburgh Penguins – and their dads – are set for the first of a weekend back-to-back against the New York Rangers on Friday night.
The team rolled into Madison Square Garden for their morning skate on Friday with their fathers and a few brothers, as the Penguins’ annual Dads Trip is taking place this weekend in New York and in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Unfortunately, for Troy Crosby – Sidney Crosby’s father – he won’t see his son in action on Friday, as Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan announced after the skate that Crosby won’t be available against the Rangers due to an upper-body injury sustained during Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Nevertheless, the Penguins and their dads hope to capture a win on Friday to start the weekend strong. Sullivan believes in the resilience of the group – and they are all aware of the tall task in front of them.
“Obviously, when you have players of that stature out of the lineup, those guys are hard to replace,” Sullivan said. “And I’m stating the obvious when I say that. But I think the guys that are in the lineup… they recognize what type of effort and what type of purpose we need to have tonight in order to have success.”
At Thursday’s full practice, forward Rickard Rakell was centering the first line with Anthony Beauvillier and Bryan Rust. The lineup from Thursday will remain intact, and Rakell – who hasn’t played center since his earlier NHL days with the Anaheim Ducks – is excited for the challenge.
“I think I have one way of playing center, and Sid has one way of playing center… and he’s the best at it,” Rakell smiled. “But, just going to try to play my game and not make it too complicated. It’s not going to be easy losing our top-two forwards. But, it’s an opportunity for us other guys to just take that opportunity and do the best we can with it.”
One of the guys who will be getting an opportunity is forward Emil Bemstrom, who was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, on Friday morning. Bemstrom is fresh off an appearance in the AHL All-Star Game and ranks third overall in the AHL in scoring with 19 goals and 41 points in 37 games.
He will start the game on a third line with Kevin Hayes and Philip Tomasino.
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic – who has a 4-2-1 record and a .936 save percentage in his last seven games – will get the start in net for Pittsburgh in opposition to Rangers’ star goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
The recently extended Russian goaltender is 18-18-2 with a .906 save percentage on the season and has struggled in his last four outings – posting a meager .820 save percentage and allowing 16 goals against. The Penguins need to pepper Shesterkin early to try to take advantage of his pedestrian play as of late.
The Rangers made a big splash last Friday, acquiring J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks in a package involving a conditional first-round pick that ended up getting sent to the Penguins by Vancouver in the Marcus Pettersson trade. They are 2-1 since the trade, and Miller has two goals and four points in those three games – including a goal and three points on a very dangerous Rangers power play.
It would serve the already-shorthanded Penguins best to stay out of the box on Friday.
