NFT: Pittsburgh at Islanders, 8pm Game Thread

Yay. "Rivalry Night" on NBCSN. This should be a lopsided affair. Probably a good game to watch on mute with the omnipresent Yinzs knob-slobbering and the Isles suckitude rendering listening impossible.

Greiss gets the call in net again. Stop the presses: Ryan Strome has been pulled from the pressbox. He rejoins the lineup while Quine sits. As well, Scott Mayfield brings his size and grit tonight while Pelech gets the night off after the hard hit into the boards last game.

It could get late early out there, so my advice: drink heavily.

Some farm notes: Mathew Barzal is back to his point scoring ways, and has 11 points in the 8 games since rejoining Seattle in the WHL. He has also been named to Canada's WJC selection camp, so expect him to lead the way when the WJC starts after Christmas.

David Quenneville of Medicine Hat leads all WHL defenseman in goals and points, going 13-18-31 so far and leads d-men in PPG with 9. He has a 9-game point scoring streak. Tri-Cities Parker Wotherspoon also has impressed going 5-19-24 in 24 games.

In the KHL, Ilya Sorokin continues his excellent goaltending and is 16-5-4 with a 1.49GAA and .931 sv pctg.

Finally, in Bridgeport, the emerging Devon Toews tallied 4 assists last night, a club record for defensemen and continues to earn the praise of the coaching staff. As noted, he may well be the next d-man called up (after Pulock returns from conditioning) when needed. He is second on Bridgeport in scoring with 2-12-14 in 19gp.

Let's Go Islanders!