Penguins (36-21-16, 88 pts) @ Islanders (42-27-5, 89 pts)

Morning Skate BuzzTIOPS+ The Pittsburgh Penguins coming off a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars Saturday evening that saw Stuart Skinner get a rare consecutive start, Penguins head coach Dan Muse will turn back to Arturs Silovs in a pivotal divisional matchup on the road tonight vs the New York Islanders.

How big is the seeding implications tonight? Pittsburgh and New York are separated by one point with the Penguins having a game in hand. And in a key tiebreaker, Pittsburgh is one game up on the Islanders in Regulation Wins 29 to 28. A potential Regulation win either way has a bigger impact on who moves into driver seat for the second place in division than playoff hopes for either side being dashed with a regulation loss.

As Illya Sorokin will man the net for the Islanders, there’s no major glaring hole in Pittsburgh’s prospects of reaching the postseason for the first time in four seasons than goaltending. Pittsburgh’s coaching staff came out of the Olympic break with a lean towards Silovs that Silovs had the best opportunity to take reins as Pittsburgh #1 goaltender for the stretch. However, it’s been anything but that. For Silovs this is a pivotal start on where his season is headed. With a 3.48 GAA and .860 SV% in the month of March, Silovs has allowed four goals or more in five of his last six starts. Making his first start in six days, Silovs stopped 24 of 29 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Avalanche where Pittsburgh allowed four-first period goals,. Muse was complimentary of how Silovs battled afterwards, though, there are strong indications over the weekend of To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Meanwhile, on the injury front, as expected Evgeni Malkin To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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