Game Preview: Vegas Golden Knights @ Pittsburgh Penguins 11/3/2026

Who: Vegas Golden Knights (9-5-2, 20 points, 2nd place Pacific Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (5-7-2, 12 points, 6th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Broadcast locally on Scripps and Sportsnet Pittsburgh, in Canada on TVAS and streaming on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins are back at PPG Paints for a Thursday home game against the Boston Bruins before flying out to the West Coast for a Saturday/Sunday back-to-back against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks.

Opponent Track: The Golden Knights are coming into the matchup on the latter end of a back-to-back after losing in Monday night shootout to the Boston Bruins. Vegas is still sitting second in the division, but the Knights have now lost five of their last six games (1-3-2 over that stretch).

Season Series: The Penguins are looking to split the season series after conceding a 6-2 loss in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Hidden Stat: Sidney Crosby only needs one more point to move past Marcel Dionne for sole possession of sixth place on the NHL’s all-time points leaderboard.

Getting to know the Golden Knights

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Mark Stone

Trevor Connelly – William Karlsson – Mitch Marner

Brett Howden – Tomas Hertl – Braeden Bowman

Jonas Rondbjerg – Nic Dowd – Marc Gatcomb

DEFENSEMEN

Brayden McNabb / Shea Theodore

Jeremy Lauzon / Noah Hanifin

Dylan Coghlan / Rasmus Andersson

Goaltenders: Carter Hart, Adin Hill

Potential scratches: Raphael Lavoie, Viliam Kmec

Injured Reserve: Parker Wotherspoon (upper body), Victor Olofsson (lower body)

• Braeden Bowman was ejected from Monday’s game for an elbow to the face of the Bruins’ Matthew Poitras.
• Victor Olofsson was still on IR as of Monday night but has joined the Knights for this week’s road trip. Should Olofsson return Tuesday, he would likely slot in alongside Tomas Hertl on the third line and bump Jonas Rondbjerg from the lineup, per Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
• Former Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon is week-to-week with an upper-body injury that has allowed Dylan Coghlan to slot into the lineup.
• Carter Hart returned from a lower-body injury to start Monday night against the Bruins, so the Penguins might be facing Adin Hill in net tonight. Hill has a .891 save percentage and 5-2 record in seven starts this season, and a career .912 save percentage and 3-2-2 record in seven starts against the Penguins.

Season stats (does not include Monday night’s game)
via hockeydb

• Mitch Marner is heading into tonight’s matchup having scored points in 10 straight games (1-14—15).

Tracking the Knights

The Golden Knights have seen mixed results in their first 16 games under first-time NHL head coach Ryan Craig. After starting the season on an 8-2 run capped by their Oct. 17 win over the Penguins, the Knights have gone 1-3-2 in their last six games.

Since that six-game stretch started Oct. 20 Golden Knights have ranked 30th in the NHL with 2.17 goals per game (2.17).

The Golden Knights could be looking to take some hope from their pushback in Monday night’s loss. Facing a two-goal deficit midway through the second period, the Knights scored two unanswered goals to tie the Bruins before eventually losing in a shootout.

The Penguins, on the other hand, will hope the Knights’ slump and their busy schedule can help the home team get back on track. Pittsburgh’s last regulation win, a 4-0 shutout of the Florida Panthers back on Oct. 22, also took place with a rested Penguins roster facing a team on the wrong end of a back-to-back.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines 

FORWARDS

Tommy Novak – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Andrei Kuzmenko – Ben Kindel – Egor Chinakhov

Ville Koivunen – Hendrix Lapierre – Justin Brazeau

Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Nick Robertson

DEFENSEMEN

Spencer Stastney / Erik Karlsson

Sam Girard / Ilya Solovyov

Declan Carlile / Kris Letang

Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov

Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Evgeni Malkin (?), Kaeden Korczak (?)

IR: Ryan Graves, Elmer Soderblom

• Evgeni Malkin and Kaeden Korczak missed Monday’s practice with lower-body injuries. The Penguins described both players as day-to-day.

• Justin Brazeau could be making his season debut after he was recalled Monday from his conditioning stint with Wilkes/Barre Scranton. He recorded one secondary assist in two games with the AHL team.
• These defensive pairings could be in flux as players were rotating during Monday’s practice.
• Rutger McGroarty has been re-assigned to the AHL. Elmer Soderblom is now considered week-to-week rather than his original day-to-day designation.
• Sergei Murashov allowed five goals on 19 shots from the Golden Knights in the Penguins’ last game in Vegas, and he started Saturday’s matchup at the Montreal Canadiens, so Arturs Silovs would be a good bet to start in net tonight.