It’s been an unusual year and there’s probably good reason, but even though we’ve known for a while that the Penguins and Islanders would be matching up in the first round, the NHL had not announced when the two teams will start.
Finally, there’s some information. The league has announced that Game 1 for Pittsburgh and New York will be on Sunday at noon. Here is the complete series schedule:
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22511933/Capture.jpg)
Games 1 and 2 will be in Pittsburgh with the series shifting to Long Island for Games 3 and 4. Game 1 will have 25% capacity but then the rules and regulations shift and will allow 50% of a crowd in time for Game 2, which will be nice as crowds slowly begin to morph back into normal.
It will end up as an eight day break for the Pens, who finished their regular season last Saturday. It’s a six day break for NYI, who completed their schedule on Monday.
Otherwise this schedule is pretty standard, no back-to-back games, no two day breaks. Just a game every other day until one of these two teams can stack up four victories and stake their claim to move forward to face the winner of the Washington/Boston series.
