Sabres at Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins bid to get off on the right foot Thursday when they open the season against the visiting Buffalo Sabres. Sidney Crosby's foot remains the hot-button topic as the superstar captain's availability is clouded for the season opener after he was hit by a shot from Buffalo defenseman Marco Scandella in a preseason game.
"I feel pretty good," Crosby said following Tuesday's practice. "I don't know the plan, but I felt good today. ... I was trying to get out of the way (of Scandella's shot) and it caught me. That happens. You face it and block it or get out of the way. I wanted to get out of the way." While Crosby reached triple digits in points last season for the sixth time in his decorated career, fellow former Hart Trophy recipient Evgeni Malkin put forth a mediocre campaign -- by his standards -- as his 72 points in 68 games were offset by a career-worst minus-25 rating and team-high 89 penalty minutes. As for Buffalo, Ralph Krueger became the club's sixth coach in the past seven seasons in May after it failed to qualify for the playoffs for the eighth straight year. Krueger has an unquestioned star in captain Jack Eichel while Jeff Skinner benefited from playing with him to the tune of scoring a career-high 40 goals in 2018-19 and receiving a shiny eight-year, $72 million contract in the offseason.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG-B (Buffalo), AT&T SportsNet-Pittsburgh
ABOUT THE SABRES (2018-19: 33-39-10, 6TH IN ATLANTIC): Buffalo is in dire need of secondary scoring behind Skinner, Eichel (28 goals) and Sam Reinhart (22), and the club hopes that the acquisition of Jimmy Vesey and Marcus Johansson can help in that department. Vesey scored 17 goals last season with the New York Rangers while Johansson is three years removed from a career-high 24 goals and 58 points with Washington. Colin Miller comes over from Vegas and joins 2018 top overall pick Rasmus Dahlin on the back end in front of the questionable goaltending tandem of Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (2018-19: 44-26-12, 3RD IN METROPOLITAN): Jake Guentzel's 40 goals last season led the team while his 76 points trailed only Crosby and Phil Kessel, who was traded to Arizona for fellow forward Alex Galchenyuk. High expectations have been placed on both Galchenyuk, who has followed up a 30-goal campaign with Montreal in 2015-16 with 55 tallies over the last three seasons -- including 19 in his lone year with the Coyotes. Dominik Kahun, who was acquired from Chicago for defenseman Olli Maatta and a fifth-round pick, and Brandon Tanev could have opportunities to excel out of the gate should they be paired on one of the top two lines with Crosby and Malkin.
OVERTIME
1. The road was not kind to Buffalo last season, with its 12 wins away from home serving as the team's fewest since 2014-15.
2. Penguins G Matt Murray owns a 3-0-1 mark in five career starts against the Sabres.
3. Buffalo LW Conor Sheary is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury heading into a tilt against his former team.