The Inside Scoop:
Good afternoon evening hockey fans. The Pens look to bounce back from a 3-0 loss to Dallas on Thursday night in a desert showdown against the Arizona Coyotes.
One area the Pens want to improve upon entering tonight’s game is their penalty killing. Pittsburgh allowed two power-play goals to the Stars on five opportunities. Part of that is the discipline to stay out of the box. The other part is the actual work of the PK unit when on the ice.
To help with the team’s penalty killing, Pittsburgh is inserting forward Kevin Porter into the lineup in place of Bobby Farnham. Porter is an avid, veteran penalty killer and his presence should help the group.
“I have to come with a lot of energy, keep things simple, play a smart, defensive game,” Porter told me. “That’s the biggest thing, I have to play well defensively and try to chip in offensively, wear their D down, get pucks deep, hit a little bit and create some chaos.”
The Pens held their morning skate at the Ice Den, the Coyotes practice facility, and used the following workflow…
Kunitz-Crosby-Kessel
Plotnikov-Malkin-Hornqvist
Bennett-Bonino-Perron
Porter-Cullen-Sprong
Cole-Letang
Maatta-Lovejoy
Dumoulin-Scuderi
Clendening-Erixon
