The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to follow up on their impressive opening night victory over the Rangers by trying to beat the other New York franchise, the Islanders.
Tonight is the home opener, so it will be the first time the Penguins faithful will be able to see Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke in real game action in the NHL. They will also get the big three starting their 20th season together.
Even though the team was victorious on Tuesday, coach Dan Muse is going to make some lineup changes.
Jarry’s turn
Arturs Silovs started the year with a 25-save shutout of the New York Rangers. However, he will not be the one starting tonight in front of the home crowd. It will be Tristan Jarry
I can understand what Coach Muse is going for here. He wants everybody to feel part of things early on. Personally, I would have run Silovs back. Jarry is not a meaningful part of the Penguins franchise anymore; that’s just the reality of the situation he created. Silovs may or may not be, but he is a long-term unknown at the NHL level, and I would ride the shutout into tonight’s game. Especially since we are not talking about a back-to-back situation.
I’m certainly not at the practices and I’m not there to see everything going on with Jarry. However, I disagree with the assessment that he was trending up. I thought Jarry looked clunky throughout his preseason game performances. I don’t expect the coach to say anything other than he is here publicly, though.
No Rust
Bryan Rust has returned to skating with his teammates, and he was wearing a normal jersey. Unfortunately, he is still going to be missing from the game day lineup
Bryan Rust is one of the Penguins best players and they are going to make sure he is ready to go before installing him back into game action. A dinged up Bryan Rust is not going to help the team on the ice nor will it help his potential trade value if they ultimately decide to move him.
For now, this will allow some other players to continue to get ice time. Given how the second line of Mantha-Malkin-Brazeau performed the other night it helps buy time for Rust to get well. It also gives Ville Koivunen a chance to play with Sidney Crosby and get his footing after a lackluster opener from him.
Another debut
Filip Hallander will be making his season debut tonight. He is coming back from an impressive campaign in the SHL where he had 53 points in 51 games. This is great production in what isn’t known as a highly offensive league.
Now, Hallander isn’t likely to be playing the same type of role with the Penguins that he did in Sweden. I doubt he is going to be fed top line minutes with a lot of power play time. The point production in the SHL does imply that he should be a functional NHL player. He will get his opportunity to show this for the first time since his two NHL games for the Penguins in 2022-23
Sid Is Not The Only #1 Overall Pick
Sidney Crosby isn’t the only #1 overall pick in this game tonight. Matthew Schaefer will be making his NHL debut for the Islanders. I only have limited viewing of him and I came away impressed. His skating was what stood out to me.
In one sequence, I watched him effortlessly join the rush, the team got caught on a turnover, then he backchecked his butt off to disrupt the rush the other way, took possession then busted it back up the ice in transition, which led to a quality shot on goal by him. Here is some of the sequence
A magnificent return?
A certain someone who has been noticeably absent from the rink the past few years might be making an appearance tonight. I know a certain someone with an October 5th birthday, and I’m not talking about the Islanders coach.
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