The Penguins hit the road for two straight games in Canada, visiting Montreal tonight and Ottawa on Saturday.
At practice yesterday, goaltender Alex Ndeljkovic sported a few stitches in his right cheek and a welt under his eye after he was hit in the face by an errant puck off the stick of Colorado’s Keaton Middleton while Ndeljkovic was sitting on the bench. He got stitched up and returned to serve as Tristan Jarry’s backup.
Defenseman Jack St. Ivany was back in Pittsburgh yesterday for rehab after suffering an unspecified injury while playing for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Despite a poor performance on the power play in Tuesday’s loss, coach Mike Sullivan says the Penguins are much better this season than they were last year with the man advantage.
After thirty games, Rickard Rakell is still penalty-free this season. He’s not been in the penalty box yet despite playing what Sullivan calls an aggressive game. The coach is impressed.
Sullivan says the team is trying its best to help Drew O’Connor overcome a goal-less streak. “OC” hasn’t scored a goal since October 18th, and has only 3 goals and 9 assists this year, with a plus/minus of minus-13.
Tonight’s game against the Canadiens airs on 92.5 FM U92 at 6 o’clock, with faceoff shortly after 7.
