Penguins Game Preview: Penguins vs Blackhawks

Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins open their 2023-24 season against the Chicago Blackhawks. The puck drops tonight at 8 P.M. Eastern at PPG Paints Arena in downtown Pittsburgh. The game can be watched on ESPN, Sportsnet, ESPN+, and TVA Sports. 

Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard will be making his NHL debut after being selected first overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. Penguins forward Jake Guentzel will be in the lineup after having ankle surgery on August 2nd. 


Projected Lineups

Chicago Blackhawks 

Taylor Hall – Connor Bedard – Ryan Donato

Tyler Johnson – Lukas Reichel – Taylor Raddysh

Nick Foligno – Jason Dickinson – Corey Perry 

Boris Katchouk – Cole Guttman – Andreas Athanasiou 

Alex Vlasic – Seth Jones

Kevin Korchinski – Connor Murphy

Jarred Tinordi – Wyatt Kaiser

Petr Mrazek

Arvid Soderblom

Healthy Scratches: D Nikita Zaitsev, F Reese Johnson, F MacKenzie Entwistle 

Pittsburgh Penguins 

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Reilly Smith – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell

Jansen Harkins – Lars Eller – Drew O’Connor 

Matt Nieto – Noel Acciari – Jeff Carter

Ryan Graves – Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson – Erik Karlsson

Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Chad Ruhwedel 

Tristan Jarry

Alex Nedeljkovic 

Healthy Scratches: D Ryan Shea, D John Ludvig 

Players To Watch

CHI: F Andreas Athanasiou (2-5-7 in final five games last season)

PIT: F Sidney Crosby (2-3-5 in final five games last season) 

Starting Goalies

CHI: G Petr Mrazek: 10-22-3, 3.66 GAA, .894 SV%, 0 SO (2022-23 stats)

PIT: G Tristan Jarry: 24-13-7, 2.90 GAA, .909 SV%, 2 SO (2022-23 stats)

Team Stats (2022-23 season)

Power Play Percentage 

CHI: 16% (28th)

PIT: 22% (14th)

Penalty Kill Percentage

CHI: 76% (22nd)

PIT: 79% (16th)

Faceoff Percentage 

CHI: 53% (6th)

PIT: 52% (9th)

Goals For Per Game

CHI: 2.46 (32nd)

PIT: 3.18 (16th)

Goals Against Per Game

CHI: 3.65 (28th)

PIT: 3.21 (19th)


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Nik Shermeto

PT ‘23 | 🇺🇸/🇨🇦 | Penguins writer for Inside The Rink | Thoughts are my own.

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