Who: Pittsburgh Penguins
(6-10-2, 14 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ San Jose Sharks (8-11-1, 17 points, 6th place Pacific Division)When: 10:00 p.m. eastern
How to Watch: Locally televised game on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and NBCSCA, streaming for out of market at ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: Monday kicked off a slack part of the schedule for the Pens, who only have three games from Nov 9 – 20. They’ll go back home and see Ottawa on Saturday night then get quite a few days off before the following
game next Thursday 11/19 against St. Louis.
Opponent Track: It’s been a long November for the Sharks, who at least were able to break a five-game losing streak with a win on Monday at home against the Islanders, though it required a shootout to get there. To amend the Counting Crows line from the first sentence, there’s not much reason to believe the rest will be better than the last with games this month still to go against Utah, Minnesota, Anaheim, Vegas and Colorado.
Season Series: It won’t be too much longer before the Sharks make their trip for the year to Pittsburgh, playing the Pens again on December 6th.
Hidden Stat: The Penguins are 4-1-0 in their last five visits to the SAP Center, per Penguins PR.
Getting to know the Sharks
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Michael Misa – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
Mason Marchment – Alex Wennberg – Kiefer Sherwood
Ivar Stenberg – Ty Dellandrea – Tyler Toffoli
Barclay Goodrow – Zach Ostapchuk – Colin Graf
DEFENSEMEN
Darnell Nurse /Michael Kesselring
Sam Dickinson / Jacob Trouba
Dmitry Orlov / Eric Pohlkamp
Goalies: Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic
Potential scratches: Adam Gaudette, Nolan Allen
Injured Reserve: Igor Chernyshov and Logan Couture
- Bringing on both Nurse and Trouba (for a combined $17.5 million cap hit this season and next) was a curious move when taken together. Grabbing one veteran in that mold was seen in many places as enough (or even one too many) getting them both in an effort to level up and
- Wennberg recently returned to the lineup, he’s quietly a big piece of the team (55 points last season) and has missed half the games this season so far, which doesn’t help matters.
- The second line has some tough customers, Sherwood leads the NHL in his this season with 106. Marchment just picked up a $5,000 fine for sticking up for an Islander who boarded Sherwood last game.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Lots of youth for the Sharks, which has led to some uneven offensive development. Giving up chances and more goals than they’ve been able to score has been a big issue. Some have risen, like Misa in his second year, some have faded away at the moment – like Graf who scored 21 goals and 46 points riding shotgun with Celebrini last year and has barely been on the scoresheet this season.
- Taking the step from tearing down and acquiring assets has gone well, now getting up the next hurdle to become a competitive team is something SJ is trying to figure out on the fly. Toffoli has been great in support, others like Sherwood and Marchment will need to step up as the veteran help the young core needs.
Key to the game: Start fast and don’t get burned by the young talent
After taking a step forward in 2025-26, San Jose is down across the board on stats so far in 2026-27. Their offense is way down and the defensive process looks as broken as ever.
Shayna Goldman at The Athletic wrote an interesting bit about the Sharks yesterday:
High-flying rebuilding teams that play a run-and-gun style (think the 2022-23 Sabres and 2021-22 Ducks) often start stressing defensive structure above all else. But sometimes that shift can suppress what makes a team so special offensively, and doesn’t actually move the needle defensively.
That has been the case so far in San Jose, where the hockey and overall team progress have been uninspiring. Now, despite an attempted shift to play more defensive hockey, the Sharks are still bleeding chances against. The team is allowing a higher rate of chances off the rush compared to last season, as well as more passes to the slot, and is failing to limit their opponents’ offensive-zone time. And unlike last year, there isn’t that same offensive punch to make up for it. The Sharks’ young guns aren’t creating nearly as many rush chances or moving the puck as well, and are overall looking disjointed after last season’s progress.
And yet, with Celebrini and Smith and Stenberg, there’s still plenty of dynamic high-end talent that can burn an opponent at any given moment, which will have to be a priority to be mindful of for the Penguins. The Sharks season, and maybe rebuild as whole, seems like it’s in a precarious and unsteady spot at the moment. That could be good timing to meet a team now in disarray, it could also make them dangerous as they look to get on track.
The start of any game is crucial – and that will hold in this. The Sharks have only scored the first goal in 5 of their 20 games this season. They have only been leading after 20 minutes on three occasions, compared to being behind at the first intermission ten times.
For the Pens, don’t give them a reason to believe and that will trap SJ in the familiar position of chasing the game from behind and likely not being able to get a result. To avoid that, shut down the first line and the Stenberg+Toffoli combo and the Sharks don’t have a lot of other pieces that have been stepping up. (All of this is easier thought out than done, especially with a defense like Pittsburgh employs..)
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Evgeni Malkin – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov – Ben Kindel – Nick Robertson
Ville Koivunen – Tommy Novak – Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Rutger McGroarty
DEFENSEMEN
Spencer Stastney / Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard* / Kaeden Korczak
Declan Carlile / Kris Letang
Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov
Potential Scratches: Hendrix Lapierre, Andrei Kuzmenko, Ilya Solovyov
IR: Ryan Graves, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Elmer Soderblom, Bryan Rust
- Could be three new forward lines, based on practice yesterday. The first line remained the same as it has been these last few games, and then FINALLY Nick Robertson gets elevated into a bigger role after scoring as many goals as anyone for the team this year in mostly a limited and defensive line. Tommy Novak, one of the team’s best players in the last handful of games, gets a new challenge and moves back to center.
- Sam Girard missed practice yesterday with what was termed a ‘maintenance day’ and usually indicative that the team is thinking the player will still play the next game.
- Trevor van Riemsdyk, who said said to have a day-to-day injury on October 10th and hasn’t been around much ever since, has been cleared for contact and was a full participant in practice. van Riemsdyk has been limited to playing in only five games.
Rising Robertson
There is something positive to be said about being used in the key defensive role with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte, as Robertson has for much of the season. That is an important line for the Penguins and one the coaches and team counts on in plenty of big situations, and not the completely typical or standard “fourth line afterthought” type of usage. The Pens have given Robertson a look on the PK and a real chance to pitch in there and grow his game and reputation as more of a two-way contributor.
That said, Robertson can score goals but has lacked the opportunity to get a lot of ice time and play with talented offensive players for much of his career, so it’s been frustrating to see him not get much of a chance to make a bigger impact so far this season. That makes it heartening to see him used with Chinakhov and Kindel today, two young and offensive-minded forwards. Robertson’s sure earned it through his play and production (tied for team-high seven goals).
