No matter who has manned the point in recent years, be it Kris Letang or Justin Schultz, the Penguins' power play has been among the most productive in the NHL.
They currently boast the NHL's fifth-ranked power play, converting at an impressive 29.2 percent. That comes a year after they boasted the league's top unit, which clicked at a franchise-record 26.2 percent.
However, the Penguins could have a dilemma on their hands tonight when they host the Islanders at PPG Paints Arena.
Schultz has been out since fracturing his leg Oct. 13 in Montreal and isn't expected back until mid-February. And now, they could be without Kris Letang, who will be a game-time decision, according to Mike Sullivan.
Letang did not take part in Tuesday's morning skate a day after leaving practice early with what the team is calling a lower-body injury. The 31-year-old left Saturday night's game in Vancouver with an injury but did return. He logged 21:07, 4:26 less than his season average.
Nineteen months removed from a neck surgery which limited him last season, the 31-year-old has rebounded with a Norris-like start to his season. He is the Penguins' fourth-leading scorer with four goals and seven assists in nine games. His 11 points are tied for fifth-most among all NHL defensemen. Of those 11 points, three have come with the man advantage.
Should he miss tonight's game, the first of a home-and-home against the Islanders, he would be difficult to replace, according to Sullivan.
"Tanger's an elite player," the coach said. "He plays so many different roles back there and helps us in so many ways. We never looked for any one guy to replace Tanger if he's not in our lineup. Usually it's by committee, and so that would be our approach if Tanger doesn't play."
Of the five regulars on the the top power play unit -- Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist and Letang -- only Malkin took the ice for Tuesday's morning skate, albeit in a 15-minute cameo.
If Letang can't go, Sullivan would have some options. Either Olli Maatta or Jack Johnson, who man the second unit, would seem the most likely to get bumped up. There's also Juuso Riikola to consider. The promising 24-year-old rookie has been a healthy scratch the past two games, but the organization raves about his potential and ability to play all situations.
Given his experience and familiarity, though, Maatta would seem the smart play.
After a rough start, which included him being a healthy scratch for the third game of the season against Las Vegas, Maatta seems to have bounced back to form.
"He's very hard on himself. He's his own toughest critic," Sullivan said. "He has high expectations of himself, and that's part of what makes him the player and the person that he is. We believe in him. We know he's a good defenseman. He's certainly a guy that we rely on in so many areas."
The sixth-year veteran, who is still just 24, has assists in each of the last two games, his first points of the season. He says the extra time that he has been spending after practices has helped him get some of his confidence back.
But like everyone else, Maatta doesn't know whether Letang will play tonight.
"Whoever's out there knows what we practice, the system," he told me. "It's just a matter of executing. You have to know who you're playing with. ... You have to make the simple play and try and give them more room and time with the pass. That's pretty important. You know they're going to be able to make those plays and get those goals."
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
• Penguins: Derick Brassard, forward, will miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury. He is day-to-day. Letang will be a game-time decision with a lower-body injury. Schultz, defenseman, is expected to miss four months after fracturing his leg Oct. 13 in Montreal.
• Islanders: Cal Clutterbuck will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
THE SKATE
• In the wake of Saturday's mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, the Penguins will wear patches on their jerseys for tonight's game that feature the team logo that incorporates the Star of David with the words "Stronger Than Hate" underneath. Sullivan said that the best way his players can honor the city is to give an inspired effort. "I'm sure that our players are going to be prepared to try and do that for the city," he said.
• Matt Murray was the first goalie off the ice, meaning that he will get the nod in goal. He stopped 38 of 39 shots in his last game, a 9-1 win at Calgary.
• Barry Trotz would not reveal his starting goalie, though it would seem that Robin Lehner will get the call. He was the first goalie off for New York.
• After recording a season-high six shots Saturday in Vancouver, Daniel Sprong believes he can build off that performance. Is there a number of shots that he would like to get every night to find a rhythm? "I'll take as many as I can get every night," he said. "But I'm a shooter, and it's frustrating when you don't get a shot on net, and you look at the game film and see how you could have shot. But there's not really an opportunity if you don't have the puck much or an opportunity to shoot. I think last game our line, all four lines, created a lot of offense and produced a lot of those shots. It was nice to get those looks. If I continue to do that, they're going to go in."
• The Islanders aren't the Stanley Cup champion Capitals, but Trotz's imprint on his new team can be seen already, according to Carl Hagelin. "They've shown they can play a structured game," he said. "They're playing a hard game. We need to be ready for that. It's not going to be a game where it's going to be a run-and-gun type of game. There will be very few chances. Have to make sure we're playing well defensively and bury the one chance you get."
• In addition to Crosby, Hornqvist, Letang and Kessel, also opting to stay off the ice Tuesday morning were Brian Dumoulin and Riley Sheahan.
THE OTHER SIDE
When Tom Kuhnhackl last was seen at PPG Paints Arena, he was ringing a shot off the far post against Braden Holtby in overtime of Game 6 of last spring's second-round series against the Capitals.
Two or three inches to the right and Kuhnhackl would have forced a deciding game in Washington, and who knows what might have happened?
Trotz says he's had conversations with Kuhnhackl about that shot.
"Unfortunately or fortunately, you talk to Sully, you can talk to every coach that's probably won a Cup, there's that moment where that goes in and one team is going home," the former Capitals coach said. "You get that save, you get that post, you go back the other way and score."
Not that Kuhnhackl is living in the past but he, like so many others, did have Pittsburgh on his mind after Saturday's shooting left 11 dead.
Pittsburgh will always be a special place to Kuhnhackl. It's where he played the previous three seasons of his career, winning a pair of Stanley Cup championships.
"For sure, it's going be emotional but Pittsburgh's a real strong city, a real strong community, and they'll be even stronger than they were before," Kuhnhackl said.
But his first game back was going to be emotional anyway. He went out to dinner with some of his former teammates last night and chatted with others from the bench during Tuesday's skate. During the first TV timeout, he'll get the obligatory tribute on the center ice scoreboard, which he joked that he's dreading.
As for lip-syncing Ryan Mill's pre-game introduction of the Penguins' starting lineup, something he and Conor Sheary used to do together, that's not going to change.
"I've done it for so long, I feel like I gotta do it," he said.
The penalty killing specialist, who signed a one-year, $700,000 contract with the Islanders in July, has found a new home in New York.
Kuhnhackl has appeared in just three of his new team's first 10 games but will be in the lineup again tonight with regular fourth-line right winger Cal Clutterbuck out with an upper-body injury.
Under Trotz, the Islanders are off to a decent start -- just a point out of the final wild card spot -- despite playing a road-heavy schedule. Tonight's game is the Islanders' eighth away from home. They have won four of their previous seven road games and are 3-0 against division opponents.
"It was a great time in Pittsburgh, memories been made that I'll never forget, but it felt like it was time for a little bit of a change where I might get an opportunity," he said. "I have to take advantage of it."
THE COMBINATIONS
The Penguins didn't show combinations at their skate after holding a full practice Monday. But here are the expected lines/pairings based on availability and the combinations the Islanders showed during their full team skate:
Guentzel-Crosby-Simon
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Sheahan-Cullen-Hornqvist
Rust-Grant-Sprong
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Oleksiak
Johnson-Ruhwedel
Lee-Nelson-Bailey
Beauvillier-Barzal-Eberle
Ladd-Filppula-Komarov
Martin-Cizikas-Kuhnhackl
Leddy-Pulock
Pelech-Boychuk
Hickey-Mayfield
THE SCHEDULE
Faceoff tonight is at 7:08 p.m. The Penguins are scheduled to practice Wednesday at noon in Cranberry Township, Pa., before leaving for Brooklyn, N.Y., where they'll face the Islanders in the second game of this home-and-home series.
THE COVERAGE
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