Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ New York Islanders 4/17/2024 - Lines, how to watch

The Pens finish out the season in New York tonight

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (38-31-12, 88 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ New York Islanders (38-27-16, 92 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Sportsnet Pittsburgh and MSGSN in the local markets, streaming on ESPN+ elsewhere

Pens’ Path Ahead: The path ends today for the 2023-24 Penguins, the team will soon disperse for the summer and await to see what changes are made in the offseason.

Opponent Track: Remarkably and inconceivably, the Islanders are off to the playoffs. But, you gotta give them their due for going 8-1-1 and finding a way to win the turtle race to third place in the Metropolitan Division. They’re basically the Penguins with the added benefit of kicking their season into gear a game or two sooner. The reward will be a first round matchup against a strong Carolina team in a rematch of the 2023 first round (CAR won in six games last year).

Season Series: The Islanders have been a massive problem for the Pens in recent years, but Pittsburgh has mostly mastered them this season with a 2-0-1 season record. In perhaps the most fun game of the season, the Pens waxed the Islanders 7-0 back on Dec. 27 and then downed NYI 3-1 victory a few days later on Dec. 31. NYI got an OT win in February.

Hidden Stat: A classic stat to share one more time via Pens PR, the Penguins own an all-time record of 387-88-47 in games when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both record a point.

Getting to know the Islanders

Potential lines

FORWARDS

Casey Cizikas - Bo Horvat - Mat Barzal

Hudson Fasching - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri

Anders Lee - J.G. Pageau - Pierre Engvall

Matt Martin - Kyle MacLean - Cal Clutterbuck

DEFENSEMEN

Adam Pelech / Ryan Pulock

Alex Romanov / Sebastien Aho

Mike Reilly / Robert Bortuzzo

Goalies: Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin

Possible scratches: Simon Holmstrom, Oliver Wahlstrom, Simon Bolduc, Noah Dobson

IR: Scott Mayfield

—Patrick Roy’s working theory to put one mid forward with two good forwards on his top lines seems to be paying off. Crazy like a fox, that one.

—Surprisingly enough, it’s been Semyon Varlamov who has emerged as the go-to goalie for the Islanders’ late season run to become a kind of the “Nedeljkovic” to Ilya Sorokin’s “Jarry”. Varlamov has started eight of the last 12 games (and four of the last five), and gone 7-1-0 with a .936 save% in this run.

—Dobson has been out of the lineup for the last couple of games, and since the Islanders have nothing to play for tonight, one would think they keep him on the sidelines to rest up for the playoffs.

—This is (finally) the last season that Martin and Clutterbuck are under contract. The Islanders usually can’t help themselves but to sign these types of players to multi-year deals but could this be the last time these two play the Pens while in NYI colors? It would be the changing of a guard, Martin has been with the Islanders since 2010 (save a two year stint in Toronto from 2016-18) and Clutterbuck has been a member of the team since 2013.

...Game on?

Carolina, NY’s first round opponent, played last night without seven regulars in a very restful Game 82. Will the Islanders follow suit and have a similar plan? Well, probably not to that degree. Per CapFriendly, NYI only has the room to bring up one player from the minor leagues. And in classic Lou Lamoriello fashion, they’ve only made two recalls in the last two months. It’s been very “what you see is what you get”. There’s no reason to push Dobson if he can benefit from the day off, as mentioned above, but beyond that there are only a couple of reserves to get in. Assuming that they even want to spell anyone. At this point, there’s some merit in the Islanders going from the opposite way and trying to carry as much momentum as possible into the playoffs given how hot they’ve been in the last 10ish games.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—The Islanders making the playoffs with only four legitimately good forwards speaks to all you need to know about the lack of quality in the middle of the Eastern Conference this season. Their fans have been going crazy about Anders Lee’s regression, others like Pierre Engvall and J.G. Pageau also have multiple years left on excessively generous contracts. It’s quite the sight to see.

—But one move that paid off for them big time, and been a difference maker to boost them into that playoff spot was last year’s trade to acquire and re-sign Bo Horvat. Adding a legit top line center with 35G/70 point production has made a huge difference for them and is an example of a mid-level team re-tooling on the fly.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell

Reilly Smith - Lars Eller - Valtteri Puustinen

Jansen Harkins - Jeff Carter - Emil Bemstrom

DEFENSEMEN

P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea / Jack St. Ivany

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry

Potential Scratches: John Ludvig, Jesse Puljujarvi, Vinnie Hinostroza, Radim Zohorna

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Noel Acciari (lower body injury), Ryan Graves (concussion)

—How many name above are playing or will be on the Pens’ roster for their last time today? Surely Jeff Carter. More if the team could find takers for the contracts of players like Smith/Rakell/Jarry, they would probably be interested in moving on from (whether or not that is feasible remains to be seen). Others like Joseph, Nedeljkovic, Shea, Harkins, Puustinen and Bemstrom need new contracts that may or may not be forthcoming. Players on the periphery like Ludvig, Puljujarvi, Zohorna and Nieto can easily wash out or be assigned to the AHL next year. There are always winds of change ahead for non-playoff teams, and that’s going to be at least a possibility for all but a handful of Penguins (87, 71, 58, 65, 17 and probably Drew O’Connor and Michael Bunting).

Another near miss

Last night’s drama has us all on the edge of our seats. For a while, things were looking OK, but never good — Washington never trailed Philadelphia in a game the Penguins needed the Capitals to lose. Detroit scored a goal with only a few seconds to go and then eventually downed Montreal anyways.

In the end, the March 7th game against the Caps with a four point swing stands out as one of many what could have beens for Pittsburgh. That was the day of finalizing the Jake Guentzel trade, and the Pens were in a funk and not interested in playing NHL hockey that night. Another gift of that trade! Obviously such a close finish can lead to any number of situations or potential reversals, but in the end the valiant rally of the last few weeks ran out of runway.

Should Pittsburgh win tonight, they’ll miss the playoff by a single point, just like last year. That’s a bitter pill to take down in these late stage Crosby years — especially considering that Crosby and Malkin were once again healthy enough to play in all the games.