Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry scheduled to start home opener
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry is scheduled to start his team’s home opener against the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.
Coach Dan Muse announced Jarry’s status following an optional morning skate in Cranberry.
The decision to start Jarry comes on the heels of a 25-save effort by goaltender Arturs Silovs in a season-opening, 3-0 win on the road against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Muse explained why he is opting to go with Jarry instead of potentially sticking with Silovs after a strong outing.
“It’s so early,” Muse said. “We just want to get everybody going, get different guys going. Tristan … especially the late part of training camp, he was really trending there in a really good direction. We look at all things. We went into it thinking we’d like to get both guys in there early. That’s what we’re doing.”
During the preseason, Jarry appeared in three games and had a 1-0-0 record, a 2.95 goals against average and an .889 save percentage.
Jarry is coming off a tumultuous 2024-25 regular season in which he was waived and sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on two separate occasions. At the NHL level, he appeared in 36 games and posted a 16-12-6 record, a 3.12 goals against average, an .892 save percentage and two shutouts.
Notes:
• Muse also announced rookie forward Filip Hallander would be making his season debut. Nothing is certain as to what line he might be deployed on, but during a practice session in Cranberry on Wednesday, Hallander skated on the right wing of the second line in place of Philip Tomasino, who operated as a reserve.
Hallander, 25, returned to the Penguins this past offseason as a free agent signing after spending the previous two seasons in his native Sweden. A second-round draft pick (Nov. 58 overall) in 2018, he previously played in three regular season games for the Penguins over two seasons, most recently during the 2023-24 season.
During this past preseason, Hallander skated in five games and finished tied for second on the team with five points (one goal, four assists).
“He got more and more comfortable,” Muse said in reference to Hallander’s preseason play. “If you look at the later exhibition games that he was in, I feel like he was really at the point where he was starting to play his game. There’s an adjustment coming back over here. The game is a little bit different. Obviously, he’s been over here, he’s played in North America before. But he’s also coming from Sweden (where) it’s just a little bit of a different game. The rinks are sometimes bigger. You can kind of slow things down with a possession game. It was solid at the beginning, but I thought it got a lot better there at the end of training camp. He is playing tonight. He will be in the lineup.”
Last season, Hallander skated for Timra IK of the Swedish Hockey League and finished second in that league’s scoring race with 53 points (26 goals, 27 assists) in 51 games.
• Muse confirmed injured forward Bryan Rust will not be in Thursday’s lineup. Currently designated to injured reserve, Rust has been sidelined since suffering an undisclosed ailment during a practice session Oct. 1.
• Those who participated in the optional skate included:
Forwards – Conor Dewar, Hallander, Ben Kindel, Ville Koivunen, Blake Lizotte, Tommy Novak, Rust, Tomasino
Defensemen – Harrison Brunicke, Connor Clifton, Mathew Dumba, Caleb Jones, Ryan Shea
Goaltender – Silovs
• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang has 597 career assists.
• Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin is scheduled to start the contest, according to Newsday. During the preseason, Sorokin appeared in two games and had a 1-1-0 record, a 3.08 goals against average and an .872 save percentage.
• Thursday’s game is the season opener for the Islanders and is slated to serve as the NHL debut for former Erie Otters defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the top overall selection in the NHL Draft this past June.
• Per Newsday, the Islanders’ lines and pairings in Thursday’s morning skate at PPG Paints Arena were:
27 Anders Lee – 13 Mathew Barzal – 21 Kyle Palmieri
29 Jonathan Drouin –
49 Max Shabanov – 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – 10 Simon Holmstrom
11 Anthony Duclair – 53 Casey Cizikas – 7 Maxim Tsyplakov
28
3 Adam Pelech – 6 Ryan Pulock
48 Matthew Schaefer – 24 Scott Mayfield
• Boqvist has 99 career points.
• The scheduled referees for Thursday’s game are Mitch Dunning (No. 20) and Gord Dwyer (No. 19) while the linesmen are Steve Barton (No. 59) and Michel Cormier (No. 76).
49ers Announce Decision on All-Pro After Win Over Rams
Christian McCaffrey and the San Francisco 49ers got back on track in Week 5, jumping to 4-1 on the 2025 NFL season after a 26-23 overtime win over Matthew Stafford and NFC West foe Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. With starting quarterback Brock Purdy out for yet another game, backup quarterback Mac Jones stepped up and led the 49ers to the game-winning drive in overtime.
McCaffrey, coming off an injury-riddled 2024, has had a strong start to his ninth NFL season. Last year, he was forced to miss the first eight games of the season with bilateral Achilles tendinitis. He played in four games upon his return, but then suffered a PCL sprain that ended his season. To begin 2025, McCaffrey has tallied 282 yards on the ground and a team-high 39 catches for 387 yards and three touchdowns through the air.
In Week 6, the 49ers will look for their second straight win, hitting the road to face Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers. However, despite McCaffrey being a full participant in practice leading up to the Rams game, San Francisco elected to rest the four-time All-Pro for Wednesday’s practice session.
This is likely just a precautionary measure from the 49ers, especially after McCaffrey has dealt with injuries over the past couple of seasons. He was even forced to miss most of training camp with a calf injury. But, outside of Week 5, San Francisco has elected to rest the running back in each Wednesday practice session.
Along with McCaffrey, left tackle Trent Williams also sat out of practice due to rest.
But it seems likely the rest day for McCaffrey is nothing to fear for 49ers fans, as the former Stanford Cardinal star opened up about facing Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte Davis once again.
“I’m sick of him, man,” McCaffrey said. “I’m sick of him. Nah, he’s a hell of a player. Always brings a big challenge and just somebody that has always played the game the right way. And to my opinion, doesn’t get enough credit. Once again, just their whole defense and guys like him, when you have a veteran like that, they spark a lot of challenges that you got to be ready for.”
