The Pittsburgh Penguins will face their first tough test of the season on Thursday night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are about to play their first prove-it game of the 2025-26 season.
They have won five of their first seven games to open the season, but haven't played a true Stanley Cup contender yet. That will change on Thursday when they play the Florida Panthers in Sunrise.
Despite the Panthers' 4-4 start to the season, they're still the back-to-back champions for a reason. They're fresh off a very emotional win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, which snapped their four-game losing streak. They were 2-1 against the Penguins last year, with both wins coming in Sunrise.
Sergei Bobrovsky will be the starter for the Panthers in this contest and is off to a strong start this season, compiling four wins with a 2.19 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage.
The Panthers will be without Aleksander Barkov for at least the entire regular season and Matthew Tkachuk until December/January, but are still getting contributions from Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues, Gustav Forsling, etc. Sam Bennett has gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but he can still strike at any time.
Tristan Jarry is set to start in goal for the Penguins after Arturs Silovs started against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Head coach Dan Muse has liked the goalie rotation thus far, and Jarry will have a chance to match Silovs after the latter only allowed one goal on Tuesday. Both goaltenders have been great to start the year.
According to Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports, it appears Connor Clifton will be back in the lineup for Harrison Brunicke. Brunicke has played in six of the Penguins' first seven games, but the coaching staff wants to manage his workload, as this is his first NHL season.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET, and fans can watch the game on SportsNet Pittsburgh or listen to it on 105.9 'The X.'
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