TLDR: Sidney Crosby is sitting level with Marcel Dionne for 6th on the NHL's all-time points list, and Tuesday, November 3 is his next chance to pass him. The Vegas Golden Knights get the first look at it, one night after playing in Boston.
The Vegas Golden Knights, who were 9-4-1 heading into an October 30 home game with New Jersey, visit Pittsburgh one night after playing in Boston, while the 5-7-2 Penguins come in rested. The game turns on whether Pittsburgh's thinned defense can hold up against Vegas's depth up front, and who Vegas puts in net on the back-to-back. Crosby needs 1 point to pass Marcel Dionne for 6th on the all-time list.
+Crosby and Karlsson each had 3 points in Montreal
+Outshot Montreal and has been generating volume
−Rust, Brazeau, Soderblom out; wing depth thin
−Graves and van Riemsdyk out on defense
−2 straight 1-goal losses, defense leaking goals
Pittsburgh hasn't been dull. The Penguins sit at 5-7-2, but their games keep turning into track meets, and their 4-5 loss in Montreal was the 2nd straight 1-goal loss. The Canadiens scored 2 goals inside 30 seconds twice that night, and Pittsburgh outshot them and still lost. Crosby had a goal and 2 assists. His 1,112th career assist passed Ray Bourque for the most assists with one franchise in NHL history, and the 3 points tied him with Dionne at 1,771. At 39, he is still driving the offense, with Erik Karlsson also posting 1 goal and 2 assists and Rickard Rakell scoring.
Vegas comes in with plenty of moving parts. The Golden Knights were 9-4-1 heading into an October 30 home date with New Jersey, and Mark Stone had 8 goals on Jack Eichel's line with Ivan Barbashev. Mitch Marner and William Karlsson anchor a 2nd line, and Tomas Hertl centers the 3rd. They play in Boston on November 2 before this one, so they arrive in Pittsburgh on the second night of a road back-to-back. That Bruins game decides who's fresh, who logged heavy minutes, and who starts in net. Adin Hill started against New Jersey while Carter Hart was day-to-day, so the goalie for this game is the biggest open question on either side.
Pittsburgh has no game before this one. It last played October 31 in Montreal, so it gets 2 full days off and a home crowd at PPG Paints Arena while Vegas deals with a flight and a short turnaround. That only matters if the Penguins can turn shot volume into wins. They've controlled stretches of games and still come out on the wrong end of the scoreboard, mostly because of what has happened in their own zone.
That last-5 stretch shows the problem. Pittsburgh shut out Florida 4-0 and edged Nashville 3-2, but the other 3 games all went 9 or 7 total goals, and all 3 were 1-goal losses. That includes 2 losses to Utah, one at home and one on the road. Vegas has a forward group built to exploit that kind of game. Eichel, Marner, Stone and Hertl give it 4 legitimate scoring threats across 3 lines, and Pittsburgh will have to match them with a lineup that's missing a lot of bodies.
The Penguins' injury list hits both ends of the ice. Bryan Rust is out with a lower-body injury and won't be re-evaluated for 6 weeks. Justin Brazeau and Elmer Soderblom are also out, which thins the wings behind Crosby and Rakell. On the back end, Ryan Graves is out indefinitely and Trevor van Riemsdyk is on injured reserve, which puts more minutes on Karlsson and whoever's left. Vegas has its own blue-line hole with Parker Wotherspoon on IR until around November 8. The board isn't up yet and won't be until the Boston game is played. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET.
