Game Preview: Sabres @ Penguins (exhibition)

The home (pre)season debut for the Pens

The Penguins and Buffalo Sabres will clash for the second time in four days tonight in a game that will raise the curtain for hockey in Pittsburgh for the 2024-25 season.

Buffalo has played their top NHL talent in the preseason so far in preparation for kicking off the season in Europe. That has led to lopsided victories, 7-3 over the Pens on Saturday night and then a 6-1 win over Columbus last night.

Considering that all Buffalo’s top healthy players were in last night’s game (and the team plays in Munich against a German team on Friday), the Sabres roster of players coming to Pittsburgh looks a lot different than the NHL-caliber club they fielded over the weekend. Here’s the B-team that will be playing tonight

Forwards (13): 41 Ty Cheveldayoff, 44 Joshua Dunne, 94 Konsta Helenius, 49 Mason Jobst, 52 Aleksandr Kisakov, 57 Brett Murray, 54 Olivier Nadeau, 36 Noah Ostlund, 63 Isak Rosen, 67 Graham Slaggert, 59 Tyler Tullio, 92 Anton Wahlberg, 42 Brendan Warren

Defensemen (7): 33 Ryan Johnson, 76 Vsevolod Komarov, 46 Noah Laaouan, 73 Zach Metsa, 91 Nikita Novikov, 5 Ethan Prow, 3 Jack Rathbone

Goaltenders (2): 31 Michael Houser, 34 Scott Ratzlaff

For their part, the Pens lineup isn’t star-studded either early in the exhibition schedule, though it offers some intriguing angles. Lines often come with dedicated pairs and Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari have been together for much of camp. Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass have been starting to work together as well and are both dressing tonight. The team’s presumptive third pair to start the season in Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany will be out there as well.

Sam Poulin will be making his preseason debut and looking to have a good night. Anthony Beauvillier will be playing his first game as a Penguin and trying to show what he can offer away from Sidney Crosby, his center for the start of camp.

It’s easy to see the Pens are enamored by Rutger McGroarty, Harrison Brunicke and Avery Hayes, all young players who will be playing in their second straight game. The same goes for Joel Blomqvist, who will be in the lineup for a second game after being touched up by Buffalo in the opener.

Time: 7:00pm
How to Watch: locally on FSG Pittsburgh, game streaming on Sabres.com (unaware if that’s geo-restricted to Western NY area)