Who: Winnipeg Jets (1-0-1, 3 points, 4th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (2-0-0, 4 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)
How to Watch: Locally televised game on Sportsnet Pittsburgh, Sportsnet+ up in Canada, out-of-market streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: Up next for the Penguins will be two road games against division opponent, Washington on Wednesday and then Columbus on Friday, then they’ll quickly return home to meet Dallas at PPG Paints on Saturday night.
Opponent Track: The Jets took a 3-0 lead yesterday afternoon in Detroit and were able to hold onto a 3-2 victory. Kyle Conner scored twice and old friend Stuart Skinner stopped 33 shots in the win. Winnipeg lost to Boston in OT in their first game of the season last week. After tonight the Jets return back home and have the Colorado Avalanche headed to the ’Peg for a Wednesday night game.
Season Series: The Pens get the pleasure of taking their trip to Winnipeg on February 21st to enjoy the Manitoban winter. In 2025-26, the Pens went 1-1 against the Jets – winning at home (5-4 shootout) and losing on the road.
Hidden Stat: At PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh is 21-3-0 in their last 24 matchups against the Winnipeg franchise dating back to Mar. 24, 2007.
Hidden Stat 2.0: Evgeni Malkin is just the second 40-year-old in NHL history to score in each of his team’s first two games of a season, alongside Gordie Howe (2 GP in 1968-69), per Pens PR.
Kyle Connor — Mark Scheifele — Cole Perfetti
Isak Rosén — Viggo Bjorck — Gabriel Vilardi
Morgan Barron — Adam Lowry — Brad Lambert
Nino Niederreiter — Vladislav Namestnikov — Alex Iafallo
Josh Morrissey / Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg / Neal Pionk
Mario Ferraro / Tyrel Bauer
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson
Potential scratches: Jack St. Ivany, Cole Koepke, Haydn Fleury
Suspended: Connor Hellebuyck (failure to report to team)
It’s easy to feel bad for the Jets players and fans after their best player, three-time Vezina winner and 2024-25 Hart trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck chose the nuclear option of not reporting to play and will sit out without pay until he can be traded. Hellebuyck requested a trade earlier in the year, at first privately then very publicly later on to make his stance clear that he doesn’t want to play for the Jets again, despite signing a seven-year extension in 2023.We’ll get a first look at Bjorck, an 18-year old drafted eighth overall in June. Bjorck is one of five 2026 draftees who have stuck on an NHL roster out of training camp and still looking for his first career point.Former Penguin Jack St. Ivany made the Jets out of camp after a summer trade had him switch organizations. St. Ivany has been a healthy scratch for the first two games of the season, falling behind 24-year old Bauer for playing time. Bauer made his NHL debut at the start of the season after spending four seasons in the AHL. Bauer might be a problem, he’s gotten into two fights in his two career NHL games. Yesterday against Detroit, Bauer threw a big hit on Detroit’s J.T Compher then dropped Keegan Kolesar in a fight.
There haven’t been any lineup changes or switches yet for the Jets. That could change today, being as Stuart Skinner played yesterday. Backup Clay Stevenson was claimed off waivers from Washington. Stevenson, 27, only has five career NHL games under his belt, though he has been one of the better goalies in the AHL over the past four seasons and is finally getting an NHL opportunity handed to him.Kyle Conner (five points in two games) is hot, it’s only two games but Mark Scheifele (zero points so far) is not. Pretty wild considering they play on the same line. Scheifele’s probably happy to see Pittsburgh come up on the schedule, he has 23 career points (9G+14A) in 23 games historically against the Pens.Nice to see Skinner start out pretty well. He was well-liked in Pittsburgh and moves onto a team of his choosing in free agency. Given his career highs and lows it will be interesting to see where his path takes him from here.
Projected lines
via the morning skate
Nick Robertson – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin
Andrei Kuzmenko – Ben Kindel – Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Hendrix Lapierre
Declan Carlile / Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard / Kaeden Korczak
Trevor van Riemsdyk / Kris Letang
Goalies: Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Filip Hallander, Elmer Soderblom, Ilya Solovyov
IR: Ryan Graves, Justin Brazeau, Bryan Rust
The Pens were off yesterday, we’ll see how the deck might reset today at the morning skate for any changes to last game’s lineup. The team is deep enough now that someone like Koivunen who scored in the first game didn’t get a sweater for the second due to forwards returning.The two lowest forwards for icetime from last game were Hallander and Lapierre, which might signal who the next players to rotate out could be. One might have to make way in the near future, since Bryan Rust was at practice in a regular jersey on Saturday.Could today be the start for Murashov? Given the schedule it could be coming up soon and a home game against a team that isn’t expected to be a powerhouse (and is also on the back half of a back-to-back) sure sounds like a great spot to start a season for a young goalie.
The blueline has been making an impact on the scoreboard early on in the season for the Penguins.
