NBCSN’s coverage of the 2020-21 NHL season begins with Wednesday’s matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Coverage begins at 5:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, both the Penguins and Flyers have been placed in the realigned East Division, along with six other clubs. This will be the first of eight regular-season meetings between the Keystone State rivals. This year’s regular-season schedule features only intra-divisional matchups.
The Penguins and Flyers are each scheduled to play 56 games during the regular season, meeting a total of eight times. Pittsburgh won two of three meetings last season.
They’ll meet in a mutual opening game for the eighth time and first since the 2013 season (Jan. 19, 2013), won by Pittsburgh, 3-1. Paul Martin, James Neal and Chris Kunitz tallied goals for the victors. Claude Giroux scored the lone goal for the Flyers. The teams have identical 3-3-1 records in the previous seven instances.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is entering his 16th NHL season and is closing in on several career milestones. Crosby is 16 games shy from becoming the first player to play 1,000 games in a Penguins uniform. Crosby is also approaching the 1,300- point plateau. He needs 37 points to reach that mark.
The Flyers will hope to get a boost from returning youngsters Nolan Patrick, 22, and Oskar Lindblom, 24. Patrick, the second overall pick in 2017, missed all of last season due to a migraine disorder, while Lindblom played just 30 games before being diagnosed with bone cancer. Lindblom returned and skated in two playoff games in September – he will enter this season more than a year removed from his diagnosis more than six months since completing his radiation treatments.
[COVERAGE BEGINS AT 5:15 P.M. ET ON NBCSN]
WHAT: Pittsburgh Penguins at Philadelphia Flyers
WHERE: Wells Fargo Center
WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 13, 5:15 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
ON THE CALL: Kenny Albert, Pierre McGuire
LIVE STREAM: You can watch the Flyers-Penguins stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
PENGUINS
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Evan Rodrigues
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Jared McCann - Mark Jankowski - Brandon Tanev
Sam Lafferty - Teddy Blueger - Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Michael Matheson - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson - Cody Ceci
Starting goalie: Tristan Jarry
FLYERS
Oskar Lindblom - Sean Couturier - Travis Konecny
Claude Giroux - Kevin Hayes - Joel Farabee
James van Riemsdyk - Nolan Patrick - Jakub Voracek
Michael Raffl - Scott Laughton - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ivan Provorov - Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim - Philippe Myers
Robert Hagg - Erik Gustafsson
Starting goalie: Carter Hart
Opening night coverage begins with a special edition of NHL Live at 5:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN, leading into coverage of Penguins-Flyers. Kathryn Tappen anchors studio coverage throughout the evening with analysts Keith Jones and Patrick Sharp as well as NHL insider Bob McKenzie.
