Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins will attempt to continue their redemption against the Islanders for embarrassing them in the playoffs last year. The Islanders are currently on a heater and the only blemish has been an overtime loss to the Penguins. They have a 14 games point streak which the Penguins will look to snap this evening



Unlike the last matchup which featured both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin this one will be missing Sid. Letang remains out of the lineup as well. The good news for the Penguins that even with the injures, which also include Hornqvist and Bjugstad, they have been playing really well. The Islanders have been decent. The Penguins process (the thing a team controls) has been terrific.



A big part of the Penguins being able to drive play is their shift back to the things that made them a quality team in 2015-16. Their defenseman, even without Letang, have a better ability to help feed the forwards. The two biggest changes have been adding John Marino to the lineup and sheltering Jack Johnson. Getting out of the zone as a cohesive unit can go a long way as a form of defense. Mike Sullivan had previously done Jack Johnson no favors and set him up to fail. He put him in a situation to drown. Being sheltered gives him the opportunity to tread water.

The thing biting the Penguins in the ass right now is their PDO. It is low and this is where missing a Crosby and a Letang hurts. They create a lot of high-danger chances that have the potential to bump the shooting percentage. The Islanders on the other hand have the PDO hooked up to their veins and are feeling on top of the world



In what will come as a shock to Penguins fans Derick Brassard has a 5v5 points per 60 of 2.25. Among players with ten games played only Mathew Barzal is better at 2.43. After being an abject failure with the Penguins Brassard has 13 points in 18 games thus far with the Islanders. He has been part of the reason the Islanders have been winning so many games.

Here are the Penguins lines for the first leg of this home and home battle.

#Pens lines are the same as they were Saturday. Hornqvist is not taking part in rushes:

Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Kahun-McCann-Tanev
Galchenyuk-Blandisi-Simon
Aston-Reese--Blueger-Lafferty

Dumoulin-Marino
Pettersson-Schultz
Johnson-Riikola

-MC

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) November 19, 2019

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