The Penguins kicked off their six game 2023-24 exhibition schedule on Sunday by knocking out two game in one day, against the same opponent. A group of Penguins met a team of Columbus Blue Jackets in Pittsburgh at 1 o’clock, and then another collection of players were on the road to meet some Jackets over in Columbus at 7pm.
In order to deal with these challenges of two games in a day, the coaching staff had to “divide and conquer” as Mike Sullivan put it. Pittsburgh assistant coach Mike Vellucci acted as the bench boss for the Pens on the matinee game, with Wilkes-Barre coaches J.