Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (36-21-16, 88 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ New York Islanders (42-27-5, 89 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. eastern

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and MSGSN, nationally broadcast on NHL Network

Advertisement

Pens’ Path Ahead: Another big one tomorrow back in the ’Burgh against the Red Wings. The games keep coming in quick succession with a trip to Tampa on tap for Thursday night, then a return to Pittsburgh next weekend for two games against the same opponent (Florida Panthers) on both Saturday and Sunday. After that is a three-day break in the schedule to recharge, regroup and get ready for the four final games of the regular season.

Opponent Track: The Islanders have been looking to stay hot, and they have won two in a row (including a 5-2 victory over Florida on Saturday). Then again, they’ve given up seven goals in a loss to Montreal and been defeated in regulation by Chicago recently, so who knows what to expect from a team all over the map. NYI won a 1-0 playoff-like game against Columbus last week, they’ll certainly be in that type of desperation mode for today’s big game.

Season Series: There were only three regular season PIT/NYI games this season, an issue that will be solved next season by moving to an 84-game schedule and allowing all division rivals to play four times in the years to follow. Pittsburgh is 1-0-1 against the Islanders so far this year, beating them 4-3 in regulation on NYI’s opening night and then the Pens dropped a 5-4 OT decision on Feb 3 to the Isles that featured two third period blown leads by Pittsburgh. Today is the final game, though it could be a preview of a first round playoff matchup.

Hidden Stat: Per Pens PR, Rickard Rakell has points in his last five of his last six visits to Long Island (5G-4A).

Advertisement

Getting to know the Islanders

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Anders Lee – Bo Horvat – Emil Heineman

Calum Ritchie – Brayden Schenn – Mat Barzal

Ondrej Palat – J.G. Pageau – Simon Holmstrom

Kyle MacLean – Casey Cizikas – Marc Gatcomb

DEFENSEMEN

Matthew Schaefer / Ryan Pulock

Adam Pelech / Carson Soucy

Scott Mayfield / Adam Boqvist

Goalies: Ilya Sorokin and David Rittich

Potential scratches: Maxim Shabanov, Anthony Duclair, Isaiah George

Injured Reserve: Tony DeAngelo, Kyle Palmieri, Pierre Engvall, Alexander Romanov, Semyon Varlamov

Schaefer played his first career game against the Pens, and it was one of those moments from the very beginning where you knew you were seeing a special player. His talent and skill was undeniable from the start, which will be leading to the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year (and he’s got a good case to be a unanimous first place vote).

I found Mathieu Darche’s deadline moves to be fairly uneven. Add a rental in Soucy for a third round pick? OK, you can see how that could be needed and help out while not breaking the bank. Add Palat (who is under contract next season at a $6.0m cap hit) for only a third and sixth coming back? That doesn’t seem like a good price to take on a bad player/contract, though they did clear out the dead weight of Max Tsyplakov and his $2.5m cap hit for next season. Trade a first+third (although being Colorado’s first, it could be very, very late) for 34-year old Brayden Schenn and his $6.5m cap hit through 2027-28? Woof. Darche was a finalist for the Penguin job before Kyle Dubas was fired in Toronto, it’s always interesting to see how his career will go. Overall, Darche has done some good things, while having the incredible draft lottery luck. Could be worse though we’ll see how much these deadline adds actually help considering he’s added players on the wrong side of 30 that have fairly decent future cap commitments.

Season stats
via hockeydb

One Darche move that does look promising was getting Calum Ritchie to the Island in the Brock Nelson trade. Ritchie is a pretty solid NHL player in only his draft+3 season and has a lot of upside to grow into. Other than someone like Barzal it’s been a while since the Isles have developed a talented, young scoring forward (though I guess Simon Holmostrom going on his second-straight 20 goal season might have something to say about that).

Heineman with a 21-9 goal/assist split might be on his way for a Cy Young this season.

Key Matchup: They could also call the sport ‘goalie’ just as easily

Goaltending is an essential part of hockey and no team gets better goalie inputs than the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin has not yet won a Vezina trophy in his career for goaltender of the year (he did finish second back in 2023-24), this just might be the year to change that. His value to the team is basically immeasurable. On the whole, the Islanders might not be a playoff-quality team, except for the fact that they’re in the race anyways in large part due to the superb effort of their goalie. This team (with their 30th ranked power play and 23rd best 5v5 offense) would be heading for the draft lottery if not for Sorokin serving as the rising tide to raise their ship.

Major playoff implications

Tonight is not quite a true ‘must win’ situation for the Penguins or Islanders, but it’s getting mighty close to that territory. A result tonight in regulation would do wonders in the models for the winner’s chances and deal a major blow to whomever losses. An overtime game kicks the can down the road a bit more for the loser, and would be most unwelcome news for the folks in Columbus, Ottawa and Detroit to see the possibility of a three-point game.

Needless to say, this is one that both teams have to have. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Advertisement

And now for the Pens

Projected lines 

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby* – Bryan Rust*

Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Anthony Mantha

Rutger McGroarty – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau

Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari*

DEFENSEMEN

Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson

Sam Girard / Kris Letang

Ryan Shea / Connor Clifton

Goalies:  Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs

Potential Scratches: Evgeni Malkin* (injured), Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves, Ville Koivunen

IR: Filip Hallander, Jack St. Ivany

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both returned to practice yesterday, in good news. Crosby will travel with the team to NY, coach Dan Muse didn’t know (or wasn’t saying) it Malkin would be on the trip. Both Bryan Rust and Noel Acciari sat out practice yesterday on official maintenance days but they will also be traveling with the team to NY.

Malkin reportedly stayed on the ice for almost an hour after practice, which typically isn’t something that a player planning to play the next day would do. Combine that with the fact that Muse didn’t green light Malkin for travel unlike Crosby is what tips the balance to project him as out again for today. Perhaps if Malkin is feeling way better by today then something will change and get him back out there, for now it doesn’t look like the signs are pointing to Malkin playing tonight though.

The Penguins didn’t alternate goalies and used the same netminder in two consecutive games for the first time in over two months this weekend when Skinner played against Dallas. The gamble didn’t pay off much, being as the Pens got in penalty trouble and eventually fell behind the Stars and dropped a game in regulation. That makes for an interesting decision today, do they go back to Skinner? Or play Silovs in what could be the most important game of the year when Silovs has given up 24 goals over his last six appearances?

Crosby: ‘We’re going to leave it all out there’

This is go time, the most exciting time of the year in hockey for so many teams competing for the same spots and trying to stake their claim to a playoff position.

After Saturday’s setback, Rust said the team’s next game against the Islanders will be an easy one to get up for, especially with the two clubs battling against each other for a playoff spot. That sentiment carried over to today.

“We know how much that means to us, playing against that team, and how important every point is,” Rickard Rakell said. “It’s truly like a playoff game.”

“They’re all important at this point,” Crosby said. “It’s a big race, a big stretch for us. As a player, these are the ones that you want to be in. These are big games.”

The Penguins knew how challenging their schedule would be in March, with 17 games in 31 days. Now, at the end of the month’s gauntlet, the Penguins have to keep digging deep to stay in the fight.

“I think you have to enjoy it. We have to embrace the situation that we’re in,” Karlsson said. “It’s a fantastic spot to be in. I think with the experience that we have in here, a lot of the guys have been through it before, but for the guys that haven’t, just don’t lose sight of how much fun it is to be playing in these types of games.”