What will Pittsburgh face in December?
Picking up where we left off from November, we’re breaking down the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2024-25 season by month, we’re now up to the magical month of December. Upon entering December, the Pens will have played 26 games of their season and when the calendar turns to 2025 they’ll have completed nearly half of the season (39).
Number of games: 13
Home-Road: 6-7
Conference Breakdown: 10 games vs. East; 3 games vs. West
Games Against Metro Division: 5
Back-to-Backs: 2
Highlights: There will be plenty of star power coming to Pittsburgh early in the month, the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers come to town on the 3rd, followed by the Maple Leafs for a prime time Saturday Hockey Night in Canada game and then Sid’s old friend Nate and the Avalanche make up the Pens’ first three home games of the month…That’s all well and good because the team faces Detroit on a 8pm start on New Year’s Eve that will have them on the ice almost right up until it’s time for the ball to drop us into 2025 if there is an overtime game.
After a home-heavy schedule in November, the Pens will be on the road a bit in December — though the longest road trips are just two games a piece, which looks manageable enough. The spacing is nice in December for Pittsburgh, who will only have one instance of the dreaded three-games-in-four-days stretches and it doesn’t come until after the four-day Christmas break.
The holidays will have a decided feel of rivalry games by having four straight Metropolitan games from December 21st-29th. They will be very important ones too with contests against New Jersey, Philadelphia and NYI, all teams that could be in close competition with Pittsburgh for positions in the standings. The Pens repeat a quirk from last year by playing the Islanders two times during the week between Christmas and New Years — and hopefully can come close to replicating last year’s 10-1 score advantage in aggregate in those two games like they did in late December 2023.
Competition-wise, the first four games of the month could be considered the most challenging stretch on paper against FLA, @NYR, TOR and COL. The next stretch is a touch easier but presents the challenge of playing away from PPG Paints in four of the following five games that take place in the Dec. 12-21 period.
A lot of people like to visit New York City in December and the Pens will be no different, flying into the NYC area for three separate games in three different weeks against each and every team in the NY metro area. On the road trip list, venues like Montreal and Nashville always rank highly across the league as some of the top spots to visit and the Pens make appearances in those cities this month as well. Being in Detroit on NYE isn’t as much of a destination but is the hand they have been dealt this year.