Game 1 of Penguins – Islanders Wednesday night will be decision time for the Penguins’ coaching staff. With Brian DuMoulin officially a game time decision and expected to be cleared to play, it would mark the first time since the trade deadline the coaches will have a decision to make on the backend. The expectation has always been that Marcus Pettersson would be the odd-man out but sources say assistant coach Jacques Martin has strongly pushed to keep the third pairing of Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson together as Gudbranson’s steady level of play has been a major surprise to this point, meaning
Jack Johnson is under serious consideration to sit. Pettersson-Gudbranson remained together today for the second straight practice.

Pittsburgh’s pairings in Tuesday’s final tune-up before Game were Maatta-Letang, Johnson-Schultz, Pettersson-Gudbranson, DuMoulin-Trotman.