Islanders vs. Penguins: Back at it [Game #34 thread]
Feb. 17, 2023: Sparky sacrificed to celebrate a hat trick. | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
The Penguins visit Long Island for the first meeting of 2023-24. The Islanders and most of the NHL are back in action tonight as the Pittsburgh Penguins visit Elmont. It’s the first meeting of the season for these two teams, part of two over the next week as the return leg will be in Pittsburgh on New Year’s Eve.
For the second-place Isles, theyll aim to keep two “New York”s at the top of the division standings, which is just weird and very early ‘80s-ish to see.
For the seventh-place Penguins (though just seven points behind the Isles), they’ll try to pull themselves out of a up-and-down December that has their closest observers and apologists pondering what will happen if they’re still out of the playoff seeding come February.
The Islanders are by no means healthy, with Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield all out medium-long term, but they’re relatively healthy in terms of the various “day to day” injuries they were carrying. It looks like Julien Gauthier, who only logged eight minutes in Saturday’s win over the Hurricanes, will sit for Oliver Wahlstrom, while Matt Martin also awaits his turn after his latest visit to IR.
#Isles at morning skateLee-Horvat-BarzalEngvall-Nelson-PalmieriHolmstrom-Pageau-WahlstromFasching-Cizikas-Clutterbuck(Extras: Martin, Gauthier)Romanov-DobsonBolduc-BortuzzoReilly-Aho(Extra: Hutton)(Also skating: Mayfield (IR))SorokinVarlamov— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) December 27, 2023
This is our in-game chat thread. Celebrate responsibly....
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