Double the action with not one but TWO Penguin games today! Both home and away versus Columbus
The Penguins kick off their exhibition schedule today, and the only thing better than one hockey game is — you guessed it — two hockey games.
At 1:00pm, the Pens will host Columbus, which could be confused at 7:00pm when Pittsburgh visits the Blue Jackets. It’s a split squad day, meaning that from coaching staff to trainers to players will be divided up. Some will hit the road, some will stay at home.
Here’s the rosters:
1:00 PM at PPG Paints Arena:
Forwards
9 Marc Johnstone
10 Drew O’Connor
11 Alex Nylander
18 Andreas Johnsson
34 Peter Abbandonato
37 Matt Filipe
41 Evan Vierling
47 Sam Houde
62 Brayden Yager
63 Radim Zohorna
64 Matthew Soto
70 Dillon Hamaliuk
83 Matt Nieto
Defensemen
2 Chad Ruhwedel
42 Libor Hajek
50 Andre Anania
52 Mark Friedman
53 Dmirtri Samokurov
73 P.O Joseph
78 Isaac Belliveau
Goaltenders
30 Joel Blomqvist
39 Alex Nedeljkovic
7:00 PM at Nationwide Arena:
Forwards
12 Corey Andonovski
13 Vinnie Hinostroza
15 Joona Koppanen
16 Rem Pitlick
22 Sam Poulin
23 Jagger Joshua
25 Austin Wagner
26 Austin Rueschhoff
36 Colin White
44 Jonathan Gruden
48 Valtteri Puustinen
85 Avery Hayes
Defensemen
3 Jack St. Ivany
4 Taylor Fedun
5 Ryan Shea
6 Mark Pysyk
24 Ty Smith
32 Justin Lee
61 Xavier Ouellet
Goaltenders
33 Taylor Gauthier
45 Magnus Hellberg
—As to be expected, not too many key players to be found early in the preseason games to make way for the lesser options at this point. All of the PTO’s get a chance to shine, as well as some fringe veterans like Vinnie Hinostroza, Andreas Johansson, Alex Nylander and Rem Pitlick.
It will be interesting to see Jagger Joshua and Corey Andonovski get in there on the road and surely get under the skin of some Blue Jackets.
The Pens aren’t quite loading up the big guns to get ready just yet, but they’ll scratch off the first two of the six exhibition games this fall today anyways.
Feel free to talk about the games if you’re seeing them and not football today.