The Pittsburgh Penguins had a long offseason and made a few changes over the summer to prime the team for the 2019-20 season. But, as mentioned in the preview, one of the most interesting elements of last night was just how little had really changed.
If you look at last April’s Pens/Islanders Game 4 lineup to last night’s regular season opener the only differences to the lineup were:
Obviously, Rust’s lack of availability due to breaking a hand in preseason was unavoidable for the team, but otherwise they trotted out not only the same exact defensive personnel but also the same pairs.