Penguins to open 2021-22 season against Lightning
The Pittsburgh Penguins will open the 2021-22 season in banner fashion.
Literally.
They will travel to the Gulf Coast of Florida and face the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 12 at Amalie Arena as the hosts raise their most recent championship banner. This contest will be the first game of the NHL season and will be broadcast on ESPN.
The Penguins’ home opener will be Oct. 16 at against the Chicago Blackhawks. That will open an eight-game home stand that will last until Nov. 6.
Their first rematch with the New York Islanders, the team that eliminated the Penguins from the 2021 playoffs, will be Nov. 26 at the new UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.
On Dec. 6, the Penguins will face the expansion Seattle Kraken for the first time at Climate Pledge Arena. That will be the fourth contest of a four-game swing through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
A seasonlong six-game road trip will take the Penguins to Philadelphia, Dallas, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose and Las Vegas between Jan. 6 and 17.
In total, the Penguins will have 12 sets of back-to-back games next season.
A three-week break in February will allow for the All-Star Game on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas as well as the Olympic Games, provided the NHL decides to participate.
As of now, there is no agreement between the NHL and the International Olympic Committee for the 2022 Games in Beijing. Should the NHL not participate, a revised schedule will be released.
After the NHL utilized geographically friendly division-only schedules because of the pandemic in 2020-21, the Penguins are back in Metropolitan Division along with the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals.
Divisional rivals will meet each other either four or three times next season. Conference foes will square off three times. Nonconference opponents will play twice.
The league has abandoned the in-season “series” format it adopted last season. Under that format, visiting teams would spend a few days in a host city and play a two-game series, much like Major League Baseball.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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