Penguins Today: Election-night anxiety with a side of anxious hockey

The United States has held 15 presidential elections since Pittsburgh became an NHL city. But the Penguins have played only five times on the day of a presidential election.

It seems like it should have happened more often, right? Tuesday nights in November are prime hockey territory.

Anyway, as the election nears its conclusion and I keep dreaming of Penguins TV broadcasts no longer inundated with political ads, I couldn't sleep last night and passed the time with research.

Some Penguins-on-election-night trivia:

But wait, there's more!

There is no correlation between the game result and presidential winner when the Penguins play on the night of a general election. See for yourself:

OK, enough about all of this. Well, one last thing.

Tonight marks the first time the Penguins will play a road game on the night of the presidential election. So when you hear somebody say something about history being made — well, in one case, you'll know that's irrefutable.

How to watch, listen, follow

The Penguins (5-7-1, 11 points) face the New York Islanders (4-6-2, 10 points) at UBS Arena. The opening faceoff is set for just after 7:30 p.m. ET.

Also, I'm and Josh Yohe is ... if you're still able to find us on X's feed.

Milestones n'at

It's been a few weeks without a major milestone for a Penguins player. That should end soon, perhaps tonight.

Crosby is three goals from 600 — a total reached or surpassed by only 20 players. Crosby will become only the ninth player to score at least 600 goals and 1,600 points, after he reached 1,600 last month (on the same night Malkin reached 500 career goals).

He's all right.

He's also on a small heater, with a couple of two-goal games in a row and seven points over the last three games. Crosby has torched the Islanders for 41 goals and 134 points in 86 career games, which is my way of saying there's a chance.

Touch passes

• Yesterday, Crosby was named the NHL's third star for last week. His historic rival, Alex Ovechkin , was selected as the first star.

To my befuddlement, this marks the first time Crosby and Ovechkin were selected together as part of the NHL's weekly three stars.

This is their 20th season in the league. No players have scored more goals or points over that span. Each has won the big regular-season awards.

Weird.

• Injured wingers Bryan Rust (lower body) and Matt Nieto (MCL) traveled with the Penguins to New York.

Rust had an on-ice workout, and Nieto was a full participant in practice on Monday. Nieto could make his season debut on this three-game road trip.

Don't miss

• The Penguins are officially in long-shot territory in Dom Luszczyszyn's latest NHL Playoff Report .

Some good news, however: The Penguins play two of the Eastern Conference's bubble teams, the Islanders and Washington Capitals , this week. But it's awfully early in the season for Metropolitan Division games to matter as much as these ones will.

• Depending on how this road trip goes, you might want to delve deeper into Scott Wheeler's 2025 NHL Draft rankings .

Scott has six prospects in Tier 1 or Tier 2, which projects a deep pool for lottery clubs.

I wouldn't recommend falling in love with any prospect yet. A lot of things must happen for the Penguins to get into James Hagens or Porter Martone territory, but, notably, Scott doesn't feel a team needs to pick first or second to land a prospect who could reshape a franchise.

(Photo: Jamie Sabau / )