Pittsburgh will make up its postponed preseason matchup against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday

With four games in five days on the horizon, the Penguins are gearing up for a gauntlet in the final week of the preseason.

Due to the condensed schedule, it's likely that folks will see pretty vastly different rosters over the next two nights, especially since they're going back-to-back-to-back on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

For tonight's game - which can be streamed on the Penguins' website - this is how the Penguins appear to be lining up:

Forwards

Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Valtteri Puustinen

Vasily Ponomarev-Tristan Broz-Emil Bemstrom

Rutger McGroarty-Noel Acciari-Jesse Puljujarvi

Avery Hayes-Jimmy Huntington-Corey Andonovski

Defensemen

Ryan Graves-Jack St. Ivany

John Ludvig-Ryan Shea

Sebastian Aho-Mac Hollowell

Goalies

Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist

Power Play

PP1: Eller, O'Connor, Puustinen, Puljujarvi, Aho

PP2: Broz, McGroarty, A. Hayes, Bemstrom, Hollowell

PK1: Ponomarev, Acciari, Graves, St. Ivany

PK2: Andonovski, Huntington, Ludvig, Shea

Not much to write home about in the morning skate today, but there are a few things of note:

- Sullivan said in his presser following practice that Erik Karlsson did not skate this morning and rehabbed off the ice. 

"He's going through the process," Sullivan said. "Some of it's going to entail on the ice, some off the ice. We'll let you know when his status changes."

I've mentioned this several times over, but, again, this is an interesting situation to keep an eye on.

- On that note, Graves and St. Ivany were reunited on a pairing in practice today. They have been paired for most of training camp, save one practice at the end of last week when St. Ivany was paired with Marcus Pettersson.

Again, this is mildly interesting because they easily could have paired St. Ivany with Pettersson in yesterday's game, assuming that he would be the guy who fills in that top-four right side hole if Karlsson is not good to go.

It almost seems like they want to keep a consistent pairing with St. Ivany and Graves. If Karlsson is not good to go on Oct. 9, this could mean that the top-four right side slot is wide open for the taking.

I'd keep an eye on Harrison Brunicke, who was paired with Pettersson in Sunday night's game and didn't look out-of-step at all.

- Sullivan said that forward Blake Lizotte had a doctor's appointment today to get evaluated for an upper-body injury. 

Lizotte was hit in the face with an errant puck in the very early stages of last night's game, and he did not return. More information on Lizotte's status should be available later today.

- Ponomarev keeps getting deployed with NHL players, particularly on the penalty kill. He's pretty consistently been killing penalties on the same unit as top penalty-killer Acciari, and he's getting looks on lines with the big leaguers as well.

Even if he doesn't make the final NHL roster, I do believe he's the first guy to get the call from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

- It's worth noting that McGroarty has not seen any time alongside Crosby or Malkin. While I see why this might be a bit of a head-scratcher for fans, it's not necessarily a bad thing in terms of his chances at a roster spot.

He will be deployed alongside Acciari and Puljujarvi tonight, two guys who are likely making the NHL roster. Throughout camp, he has consistently lined up with players like Acciari, Glass, and O'Connor, who are the guys he would more than likely play with when called up initially to the NHL.

If anything, it's probably a good sign that they're, seemingly, getting him comfortable with guys he'd realistically begin playing with. He won't get top-six minutes upon arrival, so they might as well make the setting as realistic as possible for him.

- I would venture to guess that some bigger cuts will be on their way as early as tomorrow following tonight's matchup. Again, given the slate this week, I do think some guys will definitely stick around through the end of the week.

But expect to see some guys get sent to WBS's camp over the next 24 hours.