When the Pittsburgh Penguins face the visiting New York Islanders on Sunday, it could take on a when-we-last-met vibe.
On Wednesday, the Penguins traveled to New York for a Metropolitan Division matchup and clobbered the Islanders 7-0.
The Penguins followed that with a 4-2 win on Saturday against the visiting St. Louis Blues, giving Pittsburgh a 6-1-1 record over the past eight games.
“We’ve been kind of building in the right direction and putting together more full games,” said Penguins winger Drew O’Connor, who scored against St. Louis.
O’Connor’s goal was set up by veteran center Evgeni Malkin, who also had a goal against the Blues. Malkin has roared out of the NHL’s Christmas break with three goals and an assist over two games.
“He’s competing hard. I love that about him,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I just think he plays the game with so much fire. (He’s) a guy, when his confidence is high, you can see it in his body language, and I feel like that’s where he’s at right now.”
Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry picked up his fourth shutout of the season on Wednesday against the Islanders.
Jarry, however, is not expected to start in the rematch with New York, as he started and made 26 saves on Saturday vs. St. Louis. With the team playing back-to-back games, backup Alex Nedeljkovic would be in line to start on Sunday.
New York is expected to go with Ilya Sorokin, who got pulled Wednesday after Pittsburgh’s six-goal second — tying the most goals he has given up in a game during his career.
Semyon Varlamov took over for the third period that night, but he sustained an undisclosed injury despite showing no outward discomfort.
The Islanders made it clear they will primarily be riding Sorokin for at least a bit.
“I don’t anticipate it being a problem,” coach Lane Lambert said.
New York swept the four-game season series against Pittsburgh in 2022-23 but now will be trying to bounce back from the defeat Wednesday in the teams’ first meeting of the season.
Various Islanders players used words like “ugly” and “unacceptable” and “unorganized” in the wake of that game.
Perhaps fortuitously for the Islanders, they had a contest in the interim, and they came out satisfied that they had turned the page with a 5-1 win Friday against the visiting Washington Capitals.
“We had a good character response all night long,” Lambert said. “We were better defensively, more committed in terms of finishing and closing. I just thought that we played a pretty solid game all the way around.
“That game the other night, none of us were happy with it. … It happens. Sometimes these things do happen. I knew we would respond, and we did.”
Now comes the test of carrying the Friday effort into the rematch, not reverting to the Wednesday form.
“There’s a lot of character in this (locker) room, and we were not happy with our effort (Wednesday),” Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “We owned it. And we came back (Friday) and we did the job.”
The Islanders could be getting a reinforcement as soon as Sunday, as injured defenseman Scott Mayfield has been skating and could come off injured reserve at any time.
Lambert said he “had a good feeling” Mayfield would travel to Pittsburgh.
–Field Level Media
