Penguins vs. Senators: Game preview, start time, & TV schedule

The Pittsburgh Penguins look to get their first win of the season yet again tonight as the Ottawa Senators come to town fresh off a thumping 7-3 win in Columbus last night.

Game time: 7:00 PM

TV: Root Sports

Last year: The Pens went 2-0-1 vs Ottawa last year; a 3-2 Pittsburgh win on Dec 6, a 5-4 (shootout) win Feb 12 and then a 3-4 OT loss in April.

This year: After tonight's game (which is the final game of a season-opening 5 game road trip for the Sens), we'll get Pens/Sens on Feb 2nd when Ottawa comes back to the 'Burgh then the Pens will make their one and only scheduled trip to Ottawa all the way out on April 5th to finish out the season series.

SBN Ottawa blog: Silver Seven Sens

Ottawa expected lines

Mike Hoffman - Kyle Turris - Mark Stone

Clarke MacArthur - Mika Zibanejad - Bobby Ryan

Milan Michalek - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Curtis Lazar

Alex Chiasson - Zack Smith - Chris Neil

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Marc Methot - Erik Karlsson

Cody Ceci - Patrick Wiercioch

Jared Cowen - Mark Borowiecki

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Andrew Hammond / Craig Anderson

These were the lines they used last night, but this might have to be changed as MacArthur suffered an injury last night and did not return. The only healthy forward scratch was youngster Shane Prince , so I guess he factors in if MacArthur can't go.

Anderson got the start and made 38 saves, so it might be the old Hamburgalar tonight in net, which would be his season debut.

Good start

Ottawa's off to a 3-1 start, highlighted by last night's 5 straight goals to sink the Blue Jackets. Karlsson had a career high 4 assists, Zibanejad and Ryan tossed in a goal and two assists a piece. Hopefully they got all the scoring out of their system last night.

As mentioned above, Ottawa's been on the road all season (so, a week) and after tonight they return home for the next  games. Hopefully they're already looking forward to that.

But it's been a good start for the 3-1 Sens, with Anderson a perfect 3-0 and a whopping 6 players having 4+ points so far on the season. That tends to happen when you score 15 goals in the first four games.

Guy you should keep an eye on

Impress your friends with some trivia and trivial knowledge

#68 Mike Hoffman I still don't like him because he wears Jagr's number, but Hoffman has quickly become one of the best young players in the game. So far this year the 25 year old has a goal and 3 assists in 4 games, and last season he put up 27g + 21a in an explosive rookie season that helped the Sens rocket down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Between Turris and Stone and Hoffman, Ottawa is not hurting for talented young forwards who have a ton of skill to burn and will be productive players for years. Quite frankly their speed and skill against the Penguins defense is a bad matchup for Pittsburgh tonight, who will have to control the puck and try to keep Ottawa's talented lines in the defensive zone for most of their shifts.

Old Friends

Looking at the ex-Penguins on tonight's opponent

Sadly, Ottawa has no former Penguins on their team. In fact, if you look at their top 6 scorers, 4 are home-grown. The Sens do well to develop their young players into NHL material. Milan Michalek is the brother of former Penguin Zbynek Michalek does that count? No? Ok let's move on then.

Infographic from the Pens