The Penguins also have a real hole on the right side. They opened the season with 5 players on injured reserve: Bryan Rust, Justin Brazeau, Ryan Graves, Ben Kindel and Blake Lizotte. Losing Rust and Brazeau takes 2 right wingers out of the lineup at once, so a young forward group gets asked to do more. In goal, the opening roster carried Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs. Neither one is a proven No. 1 who'll take 60 starts, and the 8 goals allowed across the last 2 games are on that duo as much as on the defense.
Columbus opened its 26th season on October 1 against Buffalo. It's also the first year of the NHL's new 84-game schedule. The Blue Jackets' attack is built around Adam Fantilli, with Kirill Marchenko and Valeri Nichushkin projected on his wings on the top line. That's a big, fast line that can tilt the ice against any second pair Pittsburgh rolls out. Columbus finished 19th in scoring last season with the 22nd-ranked power play, so turning chances into goals is the question this group is still answering.
In net, Jet Greaves is the projected starter after a strong 2025-26. The depth behind him is thinner than planned: Elvis Merzlikins had offseason surgery with no timeline to return, which leaves Phoenix Copley as the backup. If Greaves holds up, Columbus has a clean answer in goal. If he doesn't, or if the schedule forces a Copley start, a Penguins team that already has a 7-goal night and a 6-goal night this season will be happy to see it.
The matchup to watch is the Fantilli line against a Pittsburgh defense that has given up goals in bunches lately, while Crosby and Malkin try to keep feeding a forward group that's missing its 2 right wingers. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET at Nationwide Arena. The board has no prices up yet, and how Wednesday goes in Washington will shape this one more than anything that has happened so far.