Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry scheduled to start season opener

The Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to start goaltender Tristan Jarry on Wednesday in their season-opening contest against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena.

This will mark the fifth consecutive campaign Jarry has been the team’s starting goaltender in a season-opener. Only Marc-Andre Fleury (12) and Tom Barrasso (10) have been the franchise’s starting goaltender in an opener more often.

Last season, Jarry appeared in 51 games and had a 19-25-5 record, a 2.91 goals against average, a. 903 save percentage and a league-leading six shutouts.

During the preseason, Jarry played in three contests and had a 1-1-0 record, a 2.01 goals against average and a .937 save percentage.

Notes:

• Defenseman Erik Karlsson, who was sidelined for the entire preseason due to an undisclosed injury, will be available for the lineup.

• Forward Bryan Rust, currently designated to injured reserve, will not play. He participated in the morning skate at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry.

• Per coach Mike Sullivan, injured forwards Matt Nieto (left knee), Vasily Ponomarev (suspected left shoulder) and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (undisclosed) took to the ice before the morning skate. Forward Blake Lizotte (concussion) remains off the ice.

Nedeljkovic and Lizotte are designated to injured reserve while Nieto is on long-term injured reserve. Ponomarev is on the injured non-roster list.

• Those who participated in the morning skate included:

Forwards – Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes, Evgeni Malkin, Rutger McGroarty, Drew O’Connor, Jesse Puljujarvi, Valtteri Puustinen, Rickard Rakell, Rust

Defensemen – Ryan Graves, Matt Grzelcyk, Karlsson, Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany

Goaltenders – Joel Blomqvist, Jarry

• McGroarty is expected to make his NHL debut.

“Obviously, it’s a very exciting time for a young player, their first NHL game,” Sullivan said. “Everybody that has had that experience never forgets it. It’s a lifetime experience. I said to him to embrace every moment of it. I also told him that he’s earned the roster spot that he’s in right now. Throughout the course of training camp, he played extremely well. He got better and better from the start of the Prospect Challenge (event in Buffalo in early September) to his last (preseason) game. And we feel strongly that he was one of our top 12 (forwards) that was deserving to be in the lineup. That’s why he is here. It’s a huge accomplishment but it’s the beginning and he’s got to stay hungry. He’s got to continue to work at his game every day. We’re going to push him to be at his very best every day.

“But obviously, a very exciting time for him. The last thing I said to him is it’s an opportunity to thank your mom and dad and all the people that support you. None of us get to this level alone. It takes an awful lot of people to support us along the way.”

• In addition to McGroarty, those expected to make their debuts with the Penguins include Beauvillier, Glass, Grzelcyk and Hayes.

• Puustinen and Shea are expected to be healthy scratches.

• Entering the contest, Malkin has 498 career goals, 798 career assists and 1,296 career points.

• Per the New York Post, the Rangers are expected to start goaltender Igor Shesterkin. Last season, he played in 55 games and had a 36-17-2 record, a 2.58 goals against average, .912 save percentage and four shutouts.

• The Rangers’ lines and pairings during their morning skate at PPG Paints Arena were:

20 Chris Kreider - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 91 Reilly Smith

10 Artemi Panarin - 16 Vince Trocheck - 13 Alexis Lafrenière

50 Will Cuylle - 72 Filip Chytil - 24 Kaapo Kakko

84 Adam Edström - 39 Sam Carrick - 22 Jonny Brodzinski

79 K’Andre Miller - 23 Adam Fox

4 Braden Schneider - 8 Jacob Trouba

6 Zac Jones - 90 Victor Mancini

• This will be Smith’s first game against the Penguins, his former team, since he was traded in July.

• The opening faceoff is slated for 7:37 p.m.

• The referees are scheduled to be Jake Brenk and Francois St. Laurent while the linesmen will be Derek Nansen and Matt MacPherson.