Hall of Fame Night, Hot Senators: Penguins Come Home Needing Another Big Night in Goal

The Pittsburgh Penguins are home again, and the welcome is not a soft one. After closing a 2-1 California trip with a 3-2 shootout win in San Jose on Wednesday night, Pittsburgh (7-10-2, 16 points) hosts the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, November 14, at 7 p.m. ET at PPG Paints Arena (ESPN+). Before the puck drops, the Penguins will induct Marc-Andre Fleury, Larry Murphy, Jim Rutherford and the late Jack McGregor into the team's Hall of Fame Class of 2026 — a night built for nostalgia, against an opponent playing too well to let Pittsburgh live in it. Ottawa arrives at 12-6-2 with 26 points, holding the first wild-card spot in the East and sitting fourth in the Atlantic. The Senators beat Colorado 4-3 in overtime on Thursday, their third win in four games and a fourth straight game with at least a point (3-0-1). Shane Pinto celebrated his 26th birthday by opening and closing the scoring, finishing with two goals and three points including the winner at 2:08 of overtime. Pinto now has 9 goals and 17 points in 20 games. Tim Stutzle leads Ottawa with 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists), Drake Batherson has 19 points, and Linus Ullmark made 26 saves against Colorado in his return to the lineup for the first time since Oct. 21. Pittsburgh's path to two points in San Jose was narrower. Samuel Girard opened the scoring and Ben Kindel made it 2-0 on the power play early in the third, before Macklin Celebrini — who reached 200 career points in the game — and Mason Marchment tied it in the final nine minutes. Sergei Murashov held it there, finishing with 34 saves on 36 shots (.944), stopping all three Sharks in the shootout, and Kindel scored the only shootout goal. It was Murashov's second straight win to start and finish the California swing. That goaltending question leads Saturday. Head coach Dan Muse has leaned on Murashov's hot hand on the trip, and whether it is Murashov again or a return to the rotation, Pittsburgh cannot give Ottawa the third-period openings it gave San Jose. Ottawa is opportunistic late — Batherson forced overtime against Colorado with 3:56 left in regulation — and Pinto is finishing everything around the slot right now. Up front, Muse kept Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Evgeni Malkin together at Friday's practice, the loaded top line he first united in Los Angeles. Crosby, who passed Marcel Dionne for sixth on the NHL's all-time scoring list on Nov. 7 in Los Angeles, will see plenty of Ottawa's top checking and plenty of Stutzle the other way. Erik Karlsson, facing his former team, remains Pittsburgh's back-end engine. On injuries, Pittsburgh is still without Bryan Rust (lower body, injured reserve), Ryan Graves (knee, injured reserve) and Elmer Soderblom (upper body, injured reserve); Rust and Soderblom skated Friday morning with no change in status, per reporting from practice. Trevor van Riemsdyk was a full participant in practice Friday again, and Muse said a decision on his availability for Saturday would come after conversations with the player and medical staff Friday afternoon — he has played only five games this season. That is a projection of availability only, not a confirmed return. Projection — clearly a projection, not a result: this feels like another one-goal, late-decided game. Ottawa is the hotter, healthier team on paper, but Pittsburgh is home, rested an extra day (two days' rest to Ottawa's one), and just learned in San Jose how to survive a blown lead instead of folding to it. If the Penguins get a third straight steady start in goal and keep Pinto and Stutzle off the rush, a Hall of Fame night can end with two points. If the third-period leaks return, Ottawa has the finishers to punish them.