Five Pittsburgh Penguins Matchups To Watch in 2010-2011

The NHL released their 2010-2011 season schedule on Tuesday afternoon.

There will be plenty of exciting games to watch when the season gets underway this October, and the Pittsburgh Penguins will again be one of the most popular teams in the NHL to follow.

After reviewing the schedule shortly after its release, I have chosen five games that I feel Penguins fans, and hockey fans in general, should watch carefully this season. My reasoning was based on rivalries, special events, and unique circumstances surrounding these games.

Without further ado, mark your calendar to watch these Penguins games.

October 7 vs. Philadelphia Flyers: 7 p.m.

On Thursday, October 7, the Penguins will play their inaugural regular season game at the state of the art Consol Energy Center, a project several years in the making.

The Penguins have not yet announced what their plans are for this once in a lifetime game, but rest assured, it will be a special event.

Besides, who better to open the brand new arena than the Penguins’ chief rival?

After all, this is the rivalry that has brought Penguins fans many great and controversial moments over the last several years.

Most fans look back fondly on two consecutive eliminations of the Flyers from the playoffs, the Max Talbot “shhhh” to the Flyers crowd after fighting Daniel Carcillo in a playoff game, and the controversy that arose when Scott Hartnell was not penalized for supposedly biting Kris Letang.

Furthermore, with the Flyers coming off a remarkable 2009-2010 season, they should be more energized than ever to help the Penguins ring in their new arena in style.

October 30 at Carolina Hurricanes: 7 p.m.

As most NHL TV announcers like to tell you, Jordan Staal has three brothers.

One of them is named Eric, and he plays for the Carolina Hurricanes.

It is always fun to see which Staal brother can outdo the other when these two teams get together, especially since both are talented forwards and previous Stanley Cup champions.

Eric is now captain of the Hurricanes, so it can be argued that he has bested Jordan in another department. 

By the way, did you know the Staals are brothers?

December 4 at Columbus Blue Jackets: 7 p.m.

No, Columbus is not one of the most exciting teams in the NHL.

Not by a long shot.

But what makes a matchup between these two teams exciting is the fact that Pittsburgh is only three hours from Columbus.

Further, there are numerous Penguins fans living in Ohio. Whenever the Penguins play at Nationwide Arena, fans in black and gold dominate the seats and make the arena sound like a game back in Pittsburgh.

A matchup with the Blue Jackets also gave the Penguins one of their most exciting games of the 2009-2010 season.

Down 3-1 after the second period in Columbus, the Penguins got third period goals from Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Goligoski, 39 seconds apart, forcing overtime, and eventually a shootout. Sidney Crosby then got the game winning shootout goal to give the Penguins a 4-3 win.

January 1 vs. Washington Capitals: 1 p.m.

The 2011 Winter Classic will be played at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It will mark the second Winter Classic the Penguins have participated in, while it will be the first for the Washington Capitals.

A Classic featuring Crosby and Ovechkin will only add fuel to the endless Crosby vs. Ovechkin debate. Whoever’s team comes out on the winning end of the Classic will be able to have further bragging rates in this debate.

Hopefully, the Penguins throwback jersey for this event will be the jerseys worn when the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.

The Capitals really only have one throwback jersey to choose from, but regardless, sales of Crosby and Ovechkin jerseys in these styles will go through the roof from the time they are released for sale.

February 20 at Chicago Blackhawks: 4 p.m.

The Penguins will take on the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the only meeting of the season with the Hawks.

As I wrote in an earlier article, these two teams are similar in many ways, and it should be exciting to see them take the ice against each other.

Think about it: the last two Stanley Cup champions, two of the youngest captains in the league, and two teams stacked with young and veteran talent alike.

How do you not tune in?

Your Take

What other Penguins games are you looking forward to seeing this year?

Let me know in the comments section.