Pittsburgh shuffles around its lineup and opts to carry three goaltenders for its upcoming Western Canada road trip
Following a disappointing 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, there were some interesting developments at the Penguins' Saturday afternoon practice.
For starters, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic - who earned the win for Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday - was activated from his conditioning stint and added to the NHL roster.
It appears that Pittsburgh is slated to carry three goaltenders on their Western road trip, which begins with a 3:00 p.m. game on Sunday in Winnipeg. They currently have Nedeljkovic, Tristan Jarry, and rookie Joel Blomqvist on the 23-man active roster, and they have no plans to bring injured forwards Blake Lizotte, Vasily Ponomarev, and Matt Nieto on the trip.
Head coach Mike Sullivan said that, while they're doing what they can to help Jarry be at his best, performance will still be the deciding factor for starts.
"We've tried to put together a plan to try to help Tristan and capture Tristan's very best game, and we know what that looks like," Sullivan said. "And then, at the same side of the coin - as far as decisions on guys that go into the net - performance, at the end of the day, is going to be the ultimate dictator, as it is in all the positions. We know we've got quality guys there."
While the decision to carry three goaltenders is certainly an interesting one, that wasn't even the biggest story today.
The lines and pairings at practice today were a bit different:
Forwards
Anthony Beauvillier-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Valtteri Puustinen-Lars Eller-Jesse Puljujarvi
Kevin Hayes-Cody Glass-Noel Acciari
Defensemen
Matt Grzelcyk-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves-Ryan Shea
Michael Bunting, Jack St. Ivany working on the extra defensive pairing
Given this information, it appears that Bunting is on his way to being a healthy scratch in Winnipeg. Puustinen will start his first game of the young season.
Bunting has had a slow start to 2024-25, registering just a single assist over the course of six games. During the second period against Carolina, he was demoted from Malkin's line down to the third line, and by the end of the game, he was playing with the fourth line.
When asked about Bunting's performance so far this season, Sullivan gave a short response, which is a bit different than the longer responses he gave about other struggling players.
"I think our expectation is higher," he said.
Without reading too much into things here, it does seem a little bizarre that Bunting, a regular top-six forward, is seeing the press box six games into the season. Typically, players like that are given a bit more runway to try and find their game. This may be to send some kind of message, or, really, just because the coaching staff is that unenthusiastic about his performance in particular.
Either way, it's probably reasonable to expect some lineup shuffling and reshuffling during this Western trip, as the playing style of these teams differs pretty drastically.
Winnipeg is a tight-checking, strong defensive team, Calgary is a team on the verge of bottoming out, and Edmonton and Vancouver play more of a run-and-gun style of offense.
Sullivan and his team weren't happy with the fact that the Penguins could never establish their game on Friday. But, as long as the Penguins are playing their game, the rest will take care of itself.
"We're going to take each game as it comes," he said. "We're going to try to win the game right in front of us. We're going to try to get better as a team every day, and we'll see where that takes us."
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