Game Preview: New York Islanders @ Pittsburgh Penguins 12/29/2024

Who: New York Islanders (14-15-7, 35 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (16-16-5, 37 points, 4th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 5:30 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Broadcast on SportsNet Pittsburgh and MSG Sportsnet for the local markets, streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens head to Detroit on New Years Eve (lucky them..) and then get a few days off before the next part of their road swing that sends them to Florida on Friday Jan. 3 and then Carolina a week from today (which will be Jan. 5)

Opponent Track: After wrapping up the home-and-home with the Pens tonight, the Islanders get another home-and-home next week with Toronto. That begins up in Canada on Tuesday before returning back to the Island next Thursday.

Season Series: The Pens lost 4-3 to the Islanders on Nov. 5 in the first matchup. The second game was last night, a 6-3 decision to NYI. The final matchup after tonight will be March 18th in Pittsburgh.

Getting to know the Islanders

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Anders Lee – Mathew Barzal – Jean-Gabriel Pageau

Anthony Duclair – Brock Nelson – Kyle Palmieri

Maxim Tsyplakov – Bo Horvat – Simon Holmstrom

Kyle MacLean – Casey Cizikas – Hudson Fasching

DEFENSEMEN

Alexander Romanov / Noah Dobson

Adam Pelech / Ryan Pulock

Isaiah George / Scott Mayfield

Goalies: Ilya Sorokin, Marcus Hoberg

Potential Scratches: Matt Martin, Pierre Engvall, Dennis Cholowski

IR: Mike Reilly, Semyon Varlamov

—It’ll be interesting to see coming off the break if the Isles lay a heavy workload on Sorokin. Sorokin only saw 25 shots last night, and his backup is the organization’s third string. Usually goalies don’t play back-to-back, but if ever their was a situation and circumstance to break that tradition, this might just be it.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—No heavy scorers, no great goaltending, it’s no wonder that the temperature is rising on the status of the coach (and even GM) with a last place team under-performing playoff expectations in the first half of the season so far.

—That said, there’s time to turn it around but the clock is ticking. A win today would make three victories in the last four for NYI and then they could start feeling pretty confident that they’re in the process of turning a corner and entering an upswing for their season. They need one to start just about ASAP if they want to get anywhere.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Drew O’Connor

Anthony Beauvillier – Cody Glass – Philip Tomasino

Matt Nieto – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic (Tristan Jarry played yesterday)

Potential Scratches: Jesse Puljujarvi, Kevin Hayes, Nathan Clurman

IR: Marcus Pettersson, Owen Pickering

—As is recently the case, it seems like the goaltending situation as at another crossroads for the Pens. Nedeljkovic has only started two of the team’s 11 games played in December so far. He’s been relegated to the bench for Jarry to take the ball and try and run with it, but the b-2-b should mean the recently rare opportunity for Nedeljkovic to get back in there.