Who: Florida Panthers (5-3-2, 12 points, 4th place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (3-6-1, 7 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)
How to Watch: Locally televised game on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Scripps, streaming for out of market at ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens get to enjoy some time at home, and a somewhat light schedule coming up. They play again on Saturday, hosting Nashville then get four days off before the Utah Mammoth come to town next Thursday.
Opponent Track: The Panthers were in action last night in Ottawa for Brady Tkachuk’s return to the city where he started his NHL career, losing a 5-1 contest against a hot crowd. Prior to that, Florida won their last three games (CBJ, VAN, SEA). After tonight their road trip continues going to Chicago over the weekend.
Season Series: Tonight’s the only time FLA is playing in the ‘Burgh this season. The Pens head down to Florida on December 10th and then again on March 4th to finish out the three-game set.
Hidden Stat: Pittsburgh enters today’s game with points in six-straight games versus Florida (4-0-2), per Pens PR.
Getting to know the Panthers
Brady Tkachuk – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Reinhart – Lars Eller
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sandis Vilmanis
Boko Imama – Cole Schwindt – Garnet Hathaway
Gustav Forsling / Aaron Ekblad
Nikko Mikkola /Seth Jones
Dmitry Kulikov /Radko Gudas
Goalies: Akira Schmid and Cooper Black
Potential scratches: Uvis Balinskis, Cole Reinhardt
Injured Reserve: Aleksander Barkov, Brad Marchand, Jonah Gadjovich, Jacob Markstrom
Injury bug has been biting the Panthers hard so far this season. Barkov went down with a knee injury (fortunately on the other leg from the knee that kept him out all of last season), Marchand joined him soon after. Starting goalie Markstrom is now outTall goalie alert?! The undrafted 25-year old Cooper Black could be making his NHL debut tonight being as Schmid played last night in Ottawa. Black stands 6’8” and has played mostly with AHL Charlotte since turning pro in 2024. Black would set the record for tallest NHL goalie in league history, surpassing Ben Bishop and a handful of others listed at 6’7”.
Season stats
via hockeydb (last night’s results not included)
Brady Tkachuk registered two hat tricks in his first nine games as a Panther and no goals in the other seven.Hat tricks have been en vogue for the team, both Bennett and Verhaeghe had three-goal nights a few days ago against Seattle.Imama has played in all the games this season, after only playing two NHL games for Pittsburgh last season (and 16 the year before in 2024-25).Goalie was going to be the big question for the Panthers after letting Sergei Bobrovsky go and so far the results have been…ok enough I guess? Markstrom and Schmid don’t need great individual stats, as long as they can hang in there and keep the goals down (which, Markstrom’s 2.21 GAA through the first six games definitely qualifies) that should be all this team needs to handle business over the rest of the ice.
Key to the game: Florida’s tough defense, the Penguins’ not so tough defense..
It’s early but the Panthers are showing that their drop-off last season might be a one-year aberration, rebounding their goal shares (top right corner) in a major way so far in 2026-27.
The Cats don’t give up a lot of opportunities as the NHL’s top team in limited expected goals. If there’s a ray of hope, it’s that the goaltending hasn’t matched the defense and prone to allow goals (and Florida could be playing a first-time NHLer tonight in net…)
On the flip side, the bigger battle might be in front of the Pens’ net. With a pair of Tkachuks and other net-front players like Bennett, Reinhart and Lundell, Pittsburgh’s beleaguered defense is going to have their hands full keeping the front of the crease clear for their goalies. This has been an obvious and glaring flaw for the team in their first 10 games, it’s going to receive a major test tonight in that department.
Florida has won a pair of Stanley Cups recently, they have a lot of stars and high-profile players. Barkov, the Tkachuks, Marchand, a couple of Team Canada caliber players (Reinhart and Bennett). A former No. 1 overall pick in Ekblad. Seth Jones. The list goes on and on.
One of my favorites, that doesn’t draw a lot of attention is their third line, a layer even below the hidden gem level of players like Verhaeghe and Forsling that Florida found off the relative scrap heap and turned into key contributors. Lots of people know about Anton Lundell, a former high first round pick that Florida balks at trading every time they acquire a high-profile player it seems to come out the first request was to include him. They won’t do that, even if it means getting a player back like Dylan Larkin. There’s a reason for it, Lundell is one of the most polished and strongest all-around players in the game and an ideal third line center to fill-in behind all those stars.
Another player that’s a personal favorite, and perhaps as instrumental for that line as Lundell is Eetu Luostarinen. Not many overly know or appreciate him all that much, though Florida does – they locked Luostarinen up to an eight-year extension this summer ($5.0m annual cap hit). Salaries are getting high for everyone, that could be a good deal for years to come. Luostarinen is a player best seen in person, he’s always in immaculate position on the ice. Great at forechecking, physical, superb at wall battles and winning pucks back. His offense stats don’t exactly pop or command a ton of attention, but he’s just a completely solid player. He’s the type of glue guy that is frequently found on championship teams, the stars will draw more of the limelight, yet having the perfect players for the tougher roles is just as critical.
Now I’m excited to see the third member of that line these days, 22-year old Sandis Vilmanis. The 22-year old Latvian is just getting going in his career with 29 NHL games – if he can hang and compliment Luostarinen and Lundell as another sneaky good bottom-six forward for Florida that will just add to their riches in that department.
Evgeni Malkin – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust*
Ville Koivunen – Tommy Novak – Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov – Hendrix Lapierre – Andrei Kuzmenko
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Nick Robertson
Spencer Stastney / Erik Karlsson
Declan Carlile / Kaeden Korczak
Ilya Solovyov / Kris Letang
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov
Potential Scratches: Ben Kindel, Elmer Soderblom, Sam Girard
IR: Ryan Graves, Justin Brazeau, Trevor van Riemsdyk
Debated putting a ‘wait and see’ for this projection. Rust was injured at the end of last game and his status hasn’t yet been updated. Girard was skating before the last game, he could be getting close to drawing back in. Kindel, one would sense, isn’t likely to play after being hospitalized. How things will shake out will require waiting until the morning skate.Otherwise, it’s just a holding pattern for now. The Pens were off the ice Monday as they traveled back from their road trip, then got an additional day off yesterday due to the delays that ensued in their return trip home.His fault or not, Silovs has conceded five goals in four of his last five games. There’s two games ahead in the coming days before a long break and as always it will be interesting to see what the Penguins do with their goalie assignments.
Dubas speaking this morning
Kyle Dubas is expected to give a statement this morning to presumably update the status of Kindel and the events of Monday.