Ducks vs Penguins Pre-Game Stat Pack

The Anaheim Ducks (4-4-1) will wrap up their four-game East Coast road trip with a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins (3-7-1) on Thursday.

The Ducks ended their brief two-game losing streak on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over the Islanders, while the Pens are in the midst of a six-game winless streak, during which they’ve allowed 27 goals (an average of 4.5 goals per game).

Following this game, the Ducks will return home for a six-game home stand starting on Sunday.

Troy Terry is riding an eight-game point streak and coming off a performance against the Islanders in which he notched his 100th career NHL goal. He only has two points (both assists) in six career games against the Pens.

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The Penguins’ two leading scorers this season, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, have a combined 57 points in 47 career games vs the Ducks.

After playing seven-plus seasons in Anaheim as a Duck, Rickard Rakell has notched three assists in four games against his former team since he was traded at the 2022 trade deadline.

Mason McTavish has six points (three goals and three assists) in four career games against the Penguins, including a game-winning goal with 12 seconds left on the clock nearly one year ago. Spooky.

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Brian Dumoulin spent eight-plus seasons as a Pen, winning two Stanley Cups before signing with the Seattle Kraken in the Summer of 2023. In two games against his former team, he’s been held without a point and averaged 17:20 TOI. He will return as a member of the Ducks for the first time.

Frank Vatrano has ten goals in 20 career games against Pittsburgh, shooting 25.6%.

Both the Penguins and Ducks could lean any number of ways regarding who will get the start in net, especially with John Gibson having joined the Ducks on their road trip and within his timeline to return from his appendectomy he underwent on Sept. 26.

The two standouts for either team this season have been Ducks’ sophomore goaltender Lukas Dostal and Pens’ rookie Joel Blomqvist.

Dostal leads the NHL in every major statistical category when it comes to goaltenders, and in one career game against the Penguins, he posted a .943 SV%, stopping 33 of 35 shots in just two periods to record a win.

Blomqvist has yet to start a game against the Ducks in his career.

The Ducks have played on Halloween ten times (3-3-4) in franchise history and won each of their last two games on Oct. 31, a 4-2 win over the Habs in 2022 and a 2-1 OT win against the Stars in 2014.

The Anaheim Ducks are 16-24-2-2 all-time against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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