There’s still a while before training camp starts but August is the final month without hockey. Let’s take the chance to set the stage now for the first part of the Penguins’ upcoming season by breaking down what they’ll be facing in the first three calendar months of the season.
The activities start even earlier than this, the Pens will be sending prospects out to Detroit from September 11-14, a departure from the recent past when Pittsburgh went to Buffalo to scrimmage. Typically the full camp has officially started right after, which should mean camp will open on or around September 14th, though many of the NHL players will trickle back and participate in informal skates prior to that.
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Preseason is quick this year, just four games spread across six days from Sep 21-26. The NHL has cut out two preseason games to account for tacking on two more regular season games, boosting the total back to 84 for the first time in over 30 years. Usually the star players don’t go on the road for exhibitions, but it’s at least a quick trip to Buffalo for the final preseason game if the team wants to use that as a final tuneup before the year starts.
The regular season for the Pens kicks off in Philadelphia on September 30th. This will mark the first time Pittsburgh has played a game that counts in the month of September in franchise history.
October
The Pens get their first heavy stretch of games early in the year – playing five times in eight days from Oct 3-10. This stretch includes two games against division opponents (WSH, CBJ) but don’t get used to it – Pittsburgh doesn’t play Washington again until January 18th. The NHL has loaded up on the out-of-conference games early on in the year, giving just a little taste of these division opponents early. Overall, the Pens will play Western Conference teams eight times out of their 13 October games, including knocking out the entire season series with Utah over a 10-day stretch.
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October also includes the first long road trip out west for four games in Chicago, Colorado, Vegas and Utah. Overall, Pittsburgh travels about the fewest miles of anyone in the league this season, they’ll get a chunk of that down in the early going.
A trade-off to the low miles is a frequency for back-to-back games. The Pens ease into it here with just two b-2-b’s in October. Another theme for the club will be playing on Saturday’s – they don’t get a Saturday without a game until December 19th.
Only five games are against 2026 playoff teams, but that could be misleading to assume an easy start with teams like the Caps, Mammoth and Panthers all looking to take steps forward this year, while also playing Western powers like Colorado, Vegas and Dallas.
November
November features a reprieve in the scheduling at the start of the month, with only five games in the first 18 days. That figure includes a significant amount of travel with the annual California trip against the trio of teams out west. That break erodes away a little with seven games in the last 12 days of the month, though five will be at home – including the near-annual Thanksgiving Eve home game where Calgary will be the opponent this year.
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This is also shaping up to be a tricky month scheduling-wise with three instances of back-to-back games, including a weekend stint in Nashville followed by a quick turn to get to Dallas the next day. Games outside the conference continue to be the early-season trend with eight of the first 11 games of the month coming against Western teams.
By the time November ends, the Pens will have visited 9/16 of the West, virtually knocking out all their far games to go to, aside from a February road trip that will knock six out. The worm starts to turn after Thanksgiving where the Pens shift to playing more Eastern teams.
At this point, Pittsburgh will have played 27 of their 84 games, completing nearly one-third of their schedule. There’s usually a statistical to-do about the of teams in a playoff spot at this point and the perceived correlation of making the playoffs, though that will be put to the test this year since the Pens will still have 24 more games against Metropolitan Division opponents still to play and plenty of hockey left to play to make or break their season.
