There is no other feeling like it. So the question isn’t why would Crosby want to cut the celebration short, but why would he want to put off starting the process all over again?

So just 88 days after Pittsburgh closed out Nashville in six games to become the first team in nearly two decades to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, Crosby found himself out on the ice with assorted prospects, many of whom have little chance of making it to the NHL this season.

That didn’t stop Crosby and his familiar No. 87 jersey serving as perhaps the most decorated ”welcome wagon” in professional sports. For the better part of an hour the face of the game skated with the newcomers. Later in the afternoon the more established players went through a workout of their own, well aware of the message Crosby’s appearance in the building earlier in the day sent.

”I think that’s where it starts with this team,” said forward Carl Hagelin after a voluntary workout. ”Any new guy that comes up or any new guy that gets traded here, they get treated extremely well by Sid first of all and then the organization. You kind of follow his lead. There’s a good culture within this locker room and within this organization. When you get here, you’ve got to follow or you’re going to get left behind.”

Crosby makes it a point to be the first one to extend a hand, even though it can make for occasionally awkward moments, particularly for players like forward Ryan Reaves. The Penguins acquired Reaves from St. Louis over the summer looking to give their lineup a physical presence. The issue, of course, is that part of Reaves’ responsibilities during his time in St. Louis was making Crosby as uncomfortable as possible whenever the two teams met.

”I would say me and Sid’s relationship before this was rocky,” Reaves said with a laugh. ”But I don’t know many people that like me on the ice though. But we’ve hung out a couple times. Really nice guy for sure.”

Reaves joined some of his new teammates in a fantasy football draft over the weekend. Reaves believes he has an eye for talent. He also has an eye for leadership. He wasn’t exactly surprised when he arrived at the rink and Crosby was already out there working with kids who may never actually play alongside him.

”That’s why he’s the best in the world,” Reaves said. ”He does things like that and he makes the younger guys better and he pushes everybody to be the best. He’s the best in the world for a reason.”

One intent on guiding the Penguins to a third consecutive Cup, something that hasn’t been done since the New York Islanders ripped off four straight in the early 1980s, long before the salary cap came around, a move designed to level the playing field both financially and competitively. It didn’t look like that last spring as the Penguins raced by Columbus, outlasted Washington and Ottawa then pulled away from the upstart Predators in the final.

”Last year everyone said it was impossible to do, winning two in a row,” said Hagelin, whose empty-net goal in the final seconds of Game 6 quieted the ”Smashville” crowd and clinched Pittsburgh’s fifth Cup. ”Everyone is going to come after you. Now we’re used to that and we’re expecting the same thing this year. There’s going to be no surprises this year obviously.”

Doing it means enduring training camp, a six-month regular season followed by eight more weeks in the crucible of playoff hockey. The Penguins were supposed to be too tired from the Cup run in 2016 to do it again. And yet they did. As the official opening of camp looms, the lure of history is giving even established players like Hagelin a dose of adrenaline.

”Usually this time of year, you have such a short summer, maybe you’re kind of dreading it a little bit,” Hagelin said.

Not Hagelin. He missed a chunk of the regular season and the playoffs with injuries but returned in time to make an impact in the final, his legs a blur as he sped away from the Predators to flip in the goal that secured his name on the Cup for a second time.

”Focusing on coming out and getting a good start, that’s usually the tough part, to have every guy on the same page in the beginning of the year to really dig down and make sure you win those games,” he said. ”That’s our goal. After that we just keep playing and keep getting better, that’s the type of team we’re trying to be.”

—

For more AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators
When: 7:30 PM ET, Thursday, January 12, 2017
Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, Ontario

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, TSN5, ROOT (Pittsburgh), RDS2 (Ottawa)
PREDICTION: Penguins 4, Senators 2

Oddsmakers currently have the Penguins listed as -150-moneyline favorites versus the Senators, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.5.

OTTAWA — It would come as no surprise to see Matt Murray in goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they visit the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Murray, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury since Dec. 28, was activated in time to serve as backup to Marc-Andre Fleury for Pittsburgh’s 5-2 loss in Washington on Wednesday. Fleury, who gave up a tone-setting goal to Alex Ovechkin in the first minute, stopped 25 of 29 shots on the night, his first loss in four games since Murray went down.

Murray was off to an exceptional start this season with a 13-3-1 record and a 2.18 goals against average.

Meanwhile, the Penguins (26-9-5) remain only average on the road, where captain Sidney Crosby says they need to “pick up their intensity a little bit” to improve on record of 8-7-3.

“I think that on the road you have to have that little bit of extra desperation,” Crosby said after the loss to the Capitals. “At home you kind of get that boost from your crowd. On the road you have to manufacture that within the group. I think we have to understand that we’re going to get a team’s best in their home rink. If we can elevate our desperation and our intensity, we’ve got to make sure we do that.”

The Senators (21-14-4) haven’t played since Sunday, when they were outshot 38-18 but still beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 at home.

The Senators haven’t defeated the Penguins since a 4-3 overtime win in Ottawa during their miraculous run to the playoffs on April 17, 2015. They lost all three games between the teams in the 2015-16 campaign and were 8-5 victims last month, on Dec. 5 in Pittsburgh, their only meeting so far this season.

The Senators had a 4-2 lead near the midway mark of that one before the Penguins stormed back, with Bryan Rust capping the victory by putting the finishing touches on a hattrick with penalty shot and empty net goals in the third.

“When you get those types of leads you can’t sit back on them,” Senators winger Mark Stone said Wednesday. “They’re going to just keep pushing. When you get leads, especially against the best teams, you have to continue to play your game and make them come 200 feet on you.

“We don’t want to trade chances. I think when you watch teams that trade chances with them, they lose almost every night. You look at their roster and it’s pretty deep.

We know that the only way to beat them is a structured game.”

Mike Condon will be making his 17th consecutive appearance in goal for the Senators. Condon came on in relief of Craig Anderson in Pittsburgh, stopping the only two shots he faced in 7:08 of the third period.

“We saw that we can skate with them last time,” said Senators coach Guy Boucher. “I think halfway through the game, we were exactly where we wanted to be. Then we got into a you know what contest with them. I don’t think we want to do that again. They’ve got too much firepower on every line. If you’re trying to be the best offensive team against a team like that you’re going to lose. Want to make sure we’re much tighter, especially in the middle of the ice.

“Hopefully we’re able to reproduce what we did in the first half of that game.”

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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Washington Capitals
When: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Where: Verizon Center, Washington, District Of Columbia

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TVAS
PREDICTION: Capitals 4, Penguins 3

Oddsmakers currently have the PITTSBURGH listed as 105-moneyline favorites versus the WASHINGTON, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.5.

WASHINGTON – Something has to give when Metropolitan Division rivals with winning streaks meet Wednesday night in Washington.

The host Capitals (26-9-5) have won six straight, including the win that ended the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 16-game win streak, and the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins (26-8-5) own a five-game streak.

The teams are part of a three-way tie for second place — along with the New York Rangers — in the division behind Columbus.

Washington, which opens a three-game homestand, matched its season-high winning streak with a 4-1 win Monday night in Montreal. Winger Alex Ovechkin had a goal and two assists, giving him 999 career points. The goal was number 544 and tied him with Canadiens legend Maurice Richard for 29th place on the NHL’s all-time goal’s list.

“Ovi is big on the big moments. I think he recognizes how great The Rocket was and to just tie (Richard’s goal total) in this building would be pretty special, so it was really good,” Capitals head coach Barry Trotz told the team’s website. “And then he got real close to that thousandth point. I think it should be right for him to get that one in Washington in front of our own fans.”

Red hot goalie Braden Holtby’s bid for a third straight shutout ended when the Canadiens tied the score early in the third. He completed the longest scoreless streak of his career, 169 minutes and 12 seconds.

“It’s almost a good thing that it snapped, then it’s not a distraction, we can focus on playing and the guys showed a lot of character coming back,” Holtby told NHL.com.

Holtby has four shutouts in his last 12 starts.

“He’s like (Montreal’s Carey) Price, in that he’s very calm and pucks hit him in the chest,” Penguins center Nick Bonino told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’s always well-positioned.

“You have to make passes. You have to make him move. You have to screen him a little bit.”

In 15 career games versus Pittsburgh, Holtby is 6-7-2 with a 2.59 goals-against average (GAA) and .918 save percentage.

The Penguins returned from a week-long layoff to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 Sunday for their fifth straight win.

Six different players scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves. He has won seven of his last eight decisions.

Goaltender Matt Murray, who missed the last two games with a lower body injury, is day-to-day. He practiced Tuesday for a second straight day.

Fleury is 20-11-2 with a 2.56 GAA versus Washington, while Murray is 1-2 with a 3.37 GAA.

Defenseman Kris Letang — seven points in the last five games — missed practice Tuesday with an illness that affected several Penguins.

“We’re hopeful he’s going to be OK,” coach Mike Sullivan told the team’s website regarding Letang’s status for Wednesday. “But we’ll watch him today and see how it goes. Obviously, he didn’t feel well enough to skate today.”

The Capitals will likely have winger T.J. Oshie (upper body injury) back after he missed Monday’s game.

The teams split the first two meetings, with host Pittsburgh winning a shootout opening night and Washington routing the visiting Penguins 7-1 on Nov. 16.

“We didn’t have our best effort,” Penguins left winger Chris Kunitz told the Post-Gazette about the loss. “They kept laying it on us.”

Ovechkin has 28 goals and 19 assists in 46 games against the Penguins, while Sydney Crosby’s totals are 19 goals and 36 assists in 39 games versus Washington. Evgeni Malkin has 12 goals and 35 assists in 34 games against the Capitals.

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Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 17, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), CBC (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Penguins 5, Maple Leafs 3

TORONTO — The Pittsburgh Penguins had their seven-game winning streak stopped Friday night when they lost 1-0 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Stanley Cup champions will try to start a new streak Saturday night at Air Canada Centre when they play the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have one win in their past seven games.

The Maple Leafs have lost their past two games by 3-2 scores in shootouts with the San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes.

Another streak ended for the Penguins on Friday — Sydney Crosby’s nine-game point streak. He leads the NHL with 21 goals and has points in 20 of 25 games this season.

Matt Murray made his fifth consecutive start for the Penguins on Friday and had 27 saves.

“They did a good job of packing it in and kept us to the outside for the most part, but we played really well,” Murray said. “It was just one of those nights.”

The Penguins picked up another injury on their defense. They already are without Kris Letang for about two weeks with a lower body injury incurred against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. Derrick Pouliot was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to take Letang’s spot.

The Penguins lost defenseman Trevor Daley to an upper-body injury in the second period on Friday and he was still being evaluated.

Brian Dumoulin was hit by a puck in the cheek in the third period but was able to return.

“Those are two guys we need, and who play a lot of minutes,” Dumoulin said of Letang and Daley.

Pouliot had played one game against the Sharks earlier this season and played more than 18 minutes on Friday.

“I thought he did a real nice job,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He kept his game simple. I thought he played within himself. He was playing with confidence. He used his mobility out there. I thought he had a strong game for his first game back.”

Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri will be trying to stop Crosby.

“I don’t think our game plan is to come out, have a shootout and trade chances,” Kadri said. “That’s not going to work in our favor. We have to be patient, we have to be defensively in sync.”

The Maple Leafs have made a change in their backup goaltender for the game Saturday. They have recalled Jhonas Enroth from the Marlies and loaned Antoine Bibeau to the AHL club.

Enroth had cleared waivers recently before being assigned to the Marlies and Bibeau played well in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. Enroth made 24 saves in a 5-3 win over Hartford Dec. 10 in his only start for the Marlies. He has a 3.94 goals-against average in four starts for Toronto.

The Maple Leafs learned Friday that they will be without defenseman Martin Marincin for four to six weeks. He suffered a lower-body injury in the win over the Bruins in Boston on Saturday when he went hard into the boards.

The first diagnosis was that the injury was not serious, coach Mike Babcock said, but his condition did not improve. Frank Corrado, who has seldom played, might be the replacement for Marincin.

The Maple Leafs know what they need to do to get back to winning.

“We play well with the puck, we have to learn better to play without it,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said.

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Arizona Coyotes vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, December 12, 2016
Where: PPG PAINTS Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVAS, FSN Arizona, ROOT (Pittsburgh)
PREDICTION: Penguins 5, Coyotes 2

Oddsmakers currently have the Penguins listed as 340-moneyline favorites versus the Coyotes, while the game’s total is sitting at 5½.

PITTSBURGH — Both teams are coming off meaningful wins Saturday night, but the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes are in markedly different places going into their game on Monday at PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins staged yet another comeback for their season-high fifth win in a row, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Tampa, Fla., and are near the top of the NHL standings.

The Coyotes broke a season-long six-game losing streak (0-4-2) with a 4-1 win over Nashville but remain near the bottom of the league standings.

Pittsburgh has a fully healthy roster and is getting great production from its stars. Sidney Crosby leads the league with 20 goals (in 22 games) and, with 31 points, is an early challenger for the Art Ross Trophy. Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel are on Crosby’s heels with 30 points each.

Crosby and Malkin each scored twice and Kessel and Kris Letang each had three assists Saturday, when the Penguins overcame a two-goal deficit for the 14th time in Mike Sullivan’s 51 wins since he took over as coach a year ago Monday.

It was also the league-leading sixth time Pittsburgh has won when trailing after two periods.

“We shouldn’t make a habit of (falling behind), but we believe we can score when we’re playing the right way,” Crosby said.

Pittsburgh was 5-5-1 in its 11 games before this winning streak, which has the players feeling nearly invincible.

“We have lots of confidence,” Malkin said. “We know we can score two, three goals if we’re losing after the second. We have a good feeling. We come back to the ice and it doesn’t matter. Play our hockey.”

That’s easier with an intact club. The Penguins have lost several players to injury for periods of time, including Crosby, Letang, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and Matt Murray, the young goalie who seems likely to start Monday. Now they are at a point where it is just a matter of determining who will be healthy scratches.

“To have a full complement of players makes our decisions difficult, but they’re good challenges to have,” Sullivan said.

Arizona has different challenges.

Winger Max Domi, second on the team with 16 points, is out on what the club calls a week-to-week basis because of an upper-body injury.

“He was coming around after a bit of a slow start, but he creates a lot of chances,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett told the Arizona Republic. “He’s an impact player, so when you lose a guy like that, it’s opportunity for other guys. But when you lose top players like that, you have to overcome it.”

The Coyotes did that Saturday with a lot of help from their youth.

Rookies Laurent Dauphin (one goal), Brendan Perlini (one goal), Lawson Crouse (one assist), Jakob Chychrun (one assist) and Tyler Gaudet (one assist) combined for five points.

“That’s we’re hoping for,” Tippett said. “We need to get these young players up and going, as well as have our veterans kind of lead the charge for us.”

Still, the Coyotes are trying to sort things out with their lineup, particularly in search of offense. Their win Saturday marked their first time scoring four goals in more than a month. They made Anthony Duclair and Michael Stone, normally regulars, healthy scratches against the Predators.

Before Domi got hurt, Arizona lost center Brad Richardson for an extended time because of two broken leg bones.

At least partly in response to that, the Coyotes acquired Peter Holland in a trade with Toronto last week and on Sunday claimed Josh Jooris off waivers from the Rangers. Both could make their Arizona debut against Pittsburgh.

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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Florida Panthers
When: 7:30 PM ET, Thursday, December 8, 2016
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Florida

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), FSN Florida
PREDICTION: Panthers 4, Penguins 3

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers want to be the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It is not just that the Penguins are the reigning Stanley Cup champions, but how they won.

The Penguins fired their coach (Mike Johnston) on Dec. 12, 2015, and replaced him with Mike Sullivan, who was running their American Hockey League affiliate. The Penguins got hot after that and won the Stanley Cup.

The Panthers fired their coach (Gerard Gallant) on Nov. 27, 2016, and replaced him with Tom Rowe, who ran their AHL affiliate the past three years.

That, however, is where the similarities end, at least so far.

Rowe, who is also the Panthers’ general manager, has lost four of the five games since Gallant was dismissed, although the Panthers got the overtime point in three of those defeats.

On Thursday night, the Panthers — fittingly enough — will play host to the Penguins at the BB&T Center in their first home game since Gallant was dumped.

In the most recent game, Florida (12-11-4) took a 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, who got a goal from Jakub Voracek with 8.6 seconds left in overtime Tuesday.

“I told the guys after the game, as frustrating as it is, and as down as some of you may be, there are too many positives here to get down,” Rowe said. “We will keep building on what we started.”

Just what the Panthers are producing under Rowe is dubious. The fact remains that the Panthers won their first Atlantic Division last season under Gallant, setting franchise records for wins (47) and points (103).

But there must be something about the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” that the Panthers don’t understand.

Immediately after the triumphant 2015-2016 season, the Panthers thought it was best to replace their GM, Dale Tallon, who built the team, piece by piece, since getting hired in May 2010. Tallon was moved upstairs to team president, taking him out of the business of having final say on personnel decisions.

Rowe took over for Tallon. And it was Rowe — with perhaps a large say-so from team owners — who pressed the panic button on Gallant.

That type of move worked wonders last season for the Penguins. Then again, the Penguins have things the Panthers simply do not — such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and more.

On Wednesday, the Penguins (16-7-3) made a couple of roster moves, sending forward Jake Guentzel and defenseman Derrick Pouliot to their AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate.

“We don’t want our young players on the sidelines,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “It’s important for these guys to continue to play games in order to develop.”

Part of the problem for Guentzel and Pouliot is actually not a problem at all for the Penguins, which is to say the team’s veterans are healthy and no AHL reinforcements are needed at the moment.

Pittsburgh is riding a three-game winning streak, scoring 19 goals during that span. Perhaps this hot streak will be a perfect time for the Penguins to improve on their mediocre 5-5-2 road record.

Certainly, the Panthers, who are likely to be without dangerous right winger Jonathan Marchessault (lower-body injury) are vulnerable.

Then again, the Panthers haven’t quit — not by a long shot. An example of Florida’s toughness was displayed this week by defenseman Keith Yandle, who was hit by a puck Monday in a loss to the Boston Bruins.

Rather than sit out with a leg injury, Yandle extended his consecutive-games-played streak to 578. It is the 10th-longest streak in NHL history.

“He could have mailed it in, and no one would have said a word,” Rowe said. “It’s great for our young players to see that.”

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Ottawa Senators vs Pittsburgh Penguins
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, December 5, 2016
Where: PPG PAINTS Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

TV: 7 p.m. ET, TSN5, RDS2 (Ottawa), ROOT (Pittsburgh)
PREDICTION: Penguins 4, Senators 2

Ottawa was 26th in the league in goals against (2.94) and 29th on the penalty kill last season en route to missing the playoffs, but it entered Sunday ranked ninth (2.36) and eighth, respectively, in those categories while sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division. “It comes down to team defense, and the guys are buying in,” Senators goaltender Mike Condon told reporters after posting a shutout against Florida on Saturday. The Penguins pose a difficult challenge after scoring 11 times in two consecutive victories, including Saturday’s 5-3 triumph over Detroit. Captain Sidney Crosby leads the way for the Penguins with 26 points – seven of which have been recorded in his last four contests.

ABOUT THE SENATORS (15-8-2): Craig Anderson, Ottawa’s No. 1 netminder, is expected to rejoin the team after missing the last two games to be with his wife Nicholle, who is undergoing cancer treatments. The veteran has posted a 12-5-1 record, 2.20 goals-against average and .930 save percentage while Condon, who was acquired from Pittsburgh on Nov. 2, has been just as solid at 3-1-1 with a 1.66 GAA and .944 save percentage when he has been called upon. Defenseman Erik Karlsson has recorded three points in the last three games to push his team-leading total to 20 – two better than Mike Hoffman.

ABOUT THE PENGUINS (15-7-3): The defensive pairing of Ian Cole and Justin Schultz has given the offense a major boost over the last three games, as the blue-liners have combined for three goals and six assists. While Crosby has continued to pile up points, fellow superstar Evgeni Malkin is warming up with a goal and seven assists during a five-game point streak. Malkin is one point behind Crosby for the team lead and Phil Kessel notched a pair of goals in Saturday’s win to push his point total to 24, but the Penguins’ power play has struggled over the last seven games, going 1-for-23.

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Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders
When: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, TVAS
PREDICTION: Penguins 3, Islanders 2

NEW YORK — The Pittsburgh Penguins will be eager to get back on the ice Wednesday night after a three-day break. The New York Islanders are hoping a spate of three games in four days can revive their flagging season.

A pair of teams at opposite ends of the Eastern Conference will meet Wednesday night, when the Islanders host the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins at Barclays Center. Each club earned a win in its previous game. New York edged the Calgary Flames 2-1 in overtime on Monday while Pittsburgh beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 in the shootout on Saturday.

The three-day break is the third such mini-vacation so far this season for the Penguins (13-6-1), who are four points behind the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division and tied for third overall in the conference, four points free of the second wild card.

And three days off are more than enough as far as Penguins star center Sidney Crosby is concerned, even if he knows fresher legs can help later in the season.

“It’s amazing — after two days you feel it, you definitely feel it,” Crosby said following the Penguins’ practice in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. “You’re used to going every day or every other day, at least, especially with the amount of games we’ve played. I think you feel it even more.

“Ultimately I think it was good for us. It’s important and it’s something that hopefully will, down the road, make a big difference for us.”

Down the road looks murky at best for the Islanders (7-10-4), who entered Tuesday tied with the Arizona Coyotes for the fewest points in the NHL. New York is already seven points behind the Devils in the race for the second wild card.

If the Islanders are to begin turning season around, they’ll have to do so against two perennial Eastern Conference powers. After facing the Penguins, New York travels to Washington to face the Capitals on Thursday night.

“Each game is crucial for us — obviously haven’t started the season the way we wanted to,” Islanders center John Tavares said Monday night. “We know Wednesday’s going to be a good test. If you’re going to have success in the playoffs, you’ve got to beat a lot of the top teams.”

Any chance the Islanders have of crawling out of the hole they’ve dug begins with generating more offense. New York has scored three goals or fewer in eight straight games and in 18 of 21 games overall. The Penguins are 8-0-0 when scoring more than three goals.

“We’re going to have to find some offense and that’s the big thing when you play Pittsburgh,” Islanders head coach Jack Capuano said. “They can make you look silly, they’ve got a lot of offensive weapons, their power play is dynamic.”

The Islanders may be without defenseman Adam Pelech, who left after the second period Monday night due to an upper body injury. For the Penguins, right winger Patric Hornqvist is expected to return to the lineup after missing the last six games with a concussion.

This is the third of four meetings this season between the Islanders and Penguins. Host Pittsburgh beat New York 4-3 on Oct. 27 before earning a 3-2 overtime win at Barclays Center Nov. 18. The season series is scheduled to conclude in Pittsburgh on March 24.

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That fatigue affected the runner-up San Jose Sharks more than it did the Penguins early on. But both teams are again among the best in the NHL at the quarter mark of the regular season.

So much for the Stanley Cup hangover.

”There’s challenges that come with playing late into last year, but I think kind of the belief and trust and what we need to do and understanding our roles, that part of it’s there,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. ”When you talk about teams that kind of go through that, sometimes it’s fatigue, other times it’s maybe your mindset.”

Fehr said the Penguins’ mindset is ”hungry,” though unsatisfied is perhaps a better word.

The Penguins have the fourth most points in the league, but they’re not terribly happy with parts of their game, including balancing the workload of goaltenders Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury. Carl Hagelin, who was on the 2014 Eastern Conference champion New York Rangers team that started the next season 10-8-4, said the good start by Pittsburgh was due to carving out wins even when the level of play wasn’t championship caliber.

”It happens a lot: You go deep in the playoffs and you kind of have a slow start,” Hagelin said. ”For those first 10 games when we weren’t playing great but we found a way to get points, I think that’s key, especially coming back from winning the Stanley Cup and a lot of people are saying it’s hard to get points early.”

The Tampa Bay Lightning were excelling before Steven Stamkos tore the meniscus in his right knee, an injury that will cost him four to six months. Tampa Bay has dropped three in a row, but coach Jon Cooper recently said his team was prepared for life without Stamkos from when the star forward broke his leg in 2014 and missed time last season with a blood clot.

”I know that feeling three years ago when Stammer went down, we were kind of a rattled group and it took us a little while to find our way,” Cooper said. ”I think the shock value is not as tough as it may have been in the past.”

Continuity has helped the Penguins and Sharks, even though San Jose has been streaky. Coach Peter DeBoer said his team’s ”formula” is being hard to play against with good goaltending and timely offense, and unsurprisingly defenseman Brett Burns, captain Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Logan Couture have led that charge.

The Blues traded goalie Brian Elliott to Calgary and lost captain David Backes and right winger Troy Brouwer in free agency but haven’t floundered despite some inconsistency.

”We’ve had a lot of ups and downs already this year and hopefully as the season goes on we’ll be able to manage the roller coaster ride a little bit better,” forward Kyle Brodziak said. ”When we’re playing well, we can play with anyone in the league.”

FAST CATS

The ”philosophical divide” that led to the Florida Panthers firing Gerard Gallant also means they’ll play much differently under interim coach/GM Tom Rowe, who preaches a faster pace.

”This team is built for speed and skill,” Rowe said. ”All you have to do is watch what Pittsburgh did last year – the way they played and the way they attacked the puck and the way they made every step of the opponent difficult by pressuring is how we want to play. It’s a fun way to play, the players like playing that way and that’s what the fans want to watch.”

Florida lost Rowe’s coaching debut in a shootout at Chicago.

GOALIE SURPRISES

Carolina’s Michael Leighton on Sunday won his first NHL game since Dec. 30, 2010, in his first start since Jan. 27, 2013. Another journeyman, 30-year-old Flames netminder Chad Johnson, is 5-2-0 with a 1.72 goals-against average and .942 save percentage in his past seven starts.

”I think it’s just my game has grown from when I first came in the league to where it is now,” Johnson said. ”It just comes down to opportunity. When you play more, people I guess recognize it a little bit more and pay attention a little bit more.”

STREAKING

The Columbus Blue Jackets are 8-1-1 in their last 10 home games after beating the Lightning 5-1 on Tuesday.

SLUMPING

The New York Islanders have won just three of their past 10 games. GM Garth Snow has given coach Jack Capuano a so-called vote of confidence.

LEADERS

Goals, Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh), 15; Assists, Connor McDavid (Edmonton), 20; Points, McDavid, 31; Goals-against average, Tuukka Rask (Boston), 1.64; Save percentage, Carey Price (Montreal), 0.947.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Jonathan Toews could be back from an upper-body injury as the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

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Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno .

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“I’m not talking about anything ahead of Game 5,” the Pittsburgh captain said when asked about a potential Eastern Conference final against the Boston Bruins.

But after the Penguins’ 7-3 victory Wednesday night, it’s hard to imagine Crosby and his teammates aren’t starting to think about facing the Bruins, who are up 3-0 over the New York Rangers.

Jarome Iginla and James Neal each scored twice, Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis added goals, and Tomas Vokoun made 30 saves. Down 2-1 after the first period, the Penguins scored twice in a 40-second span early in the second and added four goals in the first 10 minutes of the third.

Milan Michalek, Kyle Turris and Daniel Alfredsson scored for Ottawa. Senators goalie Craig Anderson was benched after Pittsburgh’s sixth goal, and Robin Lehner finished the game.

“There was a sense like, ‘OK, this might take as many shots as we can muster to break this guy.’ And fortunately, we kept on that mindset,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was a matter of, ‘We are going to have to fire anything and everything we can at this guy to get one by him.'”

Game 5 is Friday night in Pittsburgh.

“I know what we’re going to do,” Alfredsson said. “We’re going to go out and play one hell of a game. That doesn’t worry me at all. We never quit and that’s not going to stop now. We know the odds are against us in every way, but we never quit and that’s going to continue.”

But Alfredsson also conceded that the Senators faced long odds of rallying against the top-seeded Penguins.

“Probably not,” Alfredsson said, according to NHL.com. “[Pittsburgh’s] depth and our play right now … it doesn’t look too good.

“When you look at what we did, it wasn’t good enough. Does that mean [Pittsburgh] was good? Did we make them good? Who really cares? From our point of view, we didn’t manage the puck [well], we didn’t execute our passes, and subsequently, we got punished in the neutral zone. We turned way too many pucks over and gave them some freebies. It would have been nice to have the lead for a little bit longer, but now we’re back on our heels again. We didn’t shut them down when it matters.”

The 40-year-old captain was seen retrieving the puck at the end of the game, NHL.com reported, but Alfredsson insisted that the puck was a memento for his family and not a sign that he was considering retirement at season’s end.

Senators coach Paul MacLean didn’t take a single question after the game. Instead, he held up the scoresheet and said: “I think everything’s right here. It’s 7-3. See you in Pittsburgh. We’re going to Pittsburgh and we’re coming to play. Have a good night.”

The Senators, coming off a double-overtime victory Sunday night in Game 3, opened the scoring on Michalek’s short-handed goal at 2:29 of the first period. With defenseman Sergei Gonchar in the penalty box, Alfredsson fed the puck up the middle to a streaking Michalek, who broke through the defense and beat Vokoun low on the glove side for Ottawa’s second short-handed goal of the series.

It was the Senators’ first lead of the series. It wouldn’t last.

Neal tied it with 5:04 left in the period, picking up the loose puck in the slot and putting it in the back of the net. Turris put Ottawa back in front off a rebound with 3:45 left in the first.

Pittsburgh tied it early in the second when Kunitz got behind the defense and went in alone to beat Anderson. Less than a minute later, Anderson gave up a rebound on Kris Letang’s shot that landed on the tape of Iginla’s stick to make it 3-2.

Neal started the third-period flurry with a power-play goal at 1:59. Dupuis added a short-handed goal at 8:07, Crosby followed at 8:39, and Iginla scored on a power play at 9:53.

Alfredsson finished the scoring with a late power-play goal for his 100th career playoff point.

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