Who: New York Islanders (0-0-0) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (1-0-0)

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and MSG, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens continue their NY-centric start to the season in the next matchup when the Rangers come to visit on Saturday night for Mike Sullivan’s first game back in Pittsburgh. Then the Pens go off on their California trip early in the year with upcoming games in Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose next week.

Opponent Track: The curtain comes up on the Islanders’ season tonight in Pittsburgh, after which they’ll head back to Long Island for a what looks like a tough three-game homestand (Washington, Winnipeg, Edmonton) starting on Saturday night.

Season Series: Pittsburgh carried a 1-2-1 record against NYI last season, splitting the two games at home.

Hidden Stat: Matthew Schaefer is set to join a list including Eric Lindros (1992) and Connor Bedard (2023) as first overall picks who made their NHL debuts playing against the Penguins.

Getting to know the Islanders

Projected lines (from yesterday’s practice)

Anders Lee – Mat Barzal – Kyle Palmieri

Jonathan Drouin – Bo Horvat – Emil Heineman

Maxim Shabanov – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Simon Holmstrom

Anthony Duclair – Casey Cizikas – Maxim Tsyplakov

Alex Romanov / Tony DeAngelo

Adam Pelech / Ryan Pulock

Matthew Schaefer / Scott Mayfield

Goalies: Ilya Sorokin (David Rittich backup)

Scratches: Kyle MacLean, Marc Gatcomb, Adam Boqvist

Injured Reserve: Pierre Engvall, Ethan Bear, Semyon Varlamov

Another game, another elite Russian goalie with the initials I.S. for the Pens to match up against. Sorokin is coming off his worst NHL season in terms of regulation losses (25) and save percentage (.907%) but much of that was chalked up to the team in front of him letting the goalie down more than the other way around. Now at 30-years old and entering his sixth NHL season, Sorokin will be looking for a bounce-back year to put his name back in the elites for a Vezina nomiation.The Isles have a sprinkling of new blood added to the lineup; free agents Drouin and Shabanov joined up over the summer and Heineman came over in the Noah Dobson trade. The biggest new name in the mix is Schaefer, the first overall pick in 2025 that projects as a future top-pair defenseman. Schaefer is a wonderful player and the sky is the limit for him at this point which will make an interesting moment for him to begin his NHL career with a game in Pittsburgh.Drouin saved his career with a two-year stint in Colorado, he’s been good as a supporting scoring line player when he plays (producing 37 points in 43 games last season) but his problem has been availability, appearing in 289 out of 453 possible games since the start of 2019-20.Shabanov, 25, was one of the premiere KHL free agents of the summer and chose to sign an NHL entry level contract with the Islanders over many interested suitors. He’s small, listed officially at 5’9, 167 pounds but did score 67 points in 65 KHL games last season, tacking on 20 more points in 21 playoff games. Many a Russian free agent import ends up on the level of Ilya Mikheyev or a brief pop out like Andrei Kuzmenko or Alexander Barbanov (or, as the Isles saw last year with 10 goals and 35 points from Maxim Tsyplakov) more than being long-term smash successes. The unknown and potential is always a draw on a cheap contract even if a team never knows what the impact might end up being.Heineman, 23, has some size (6’2, 204 pounds) and scored 10 goals and 18 points in 62 games last season with Montreal, his first full season in the NHL. Heineman was a bit of an afterthought in that trade that sent two first round picks to the Islanders but is worth watching to see what might develop there.

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Ville Koivunen

Anthony Mantha – Evgeni Malkin – Justin Brazeau

Tommy Novak – Ben Kindel – Filip Hallander Philip Tomasino

Philip Tomasino – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari/Connor Dewar

Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson

Caleb Jones / Harrison Brunicke

Goalies: Arturs Silovs, Tristan Jarry

Potential Scratches: Connor Clifton, Mathew Dumba

IR: Bryan Rust (week-to-week, lower body), Kevin Hayes (upper body, week-to-week), Jack St. Ivany (week-to-week, lower body), Rutger McGroarty (indefinite, upper-body), Joel Blomqvist (week-to-week, lower body)

The Penguins made a couple of changes yesterdat at practice from their opening night 3-0 win one their bottom-six rotating players around.There was some good news in Bryan Rust taking to the ice for practice in a regular jersey. It was announced on Oct 2nd that Rust would be out a minimum of two weeks. Rust played coy with “wait and see” when ask if his timeline had changed, he rotated in some drills with Crosby and Rakell.The Pens were curiously wearing yellow helmets in practice. Still no word about their alternate jerseys this year and after the LA Kings surprised fans by wearing their normal jerseys in warmup and then changing to a brand new, unleaked third jersey on Saturday, well, we’ll see if anything is up their sleeves..

The Pens will celebrate their trio of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang playing together for a 20th consecutive season.