ESPN and TNT announced their national game schedule for the 2025-26 NHL season on Wednesday.
There will be 172 combined games on the platforms, which is the most ever. One hundred of those games will be exclusive to ESPN platforms, while the other 72 will be exclusive to TNT.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will appear on national television 16 times, which ties them for the third-most appearances in the league, alongside the Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, and New York Rangers. Only the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and Detroit Red Wings have more nationally televised games than the Penguins.
10 of the 16 national games for the Penguins will be on ESPN platforms, while the other six will be televised on TNT. Despite low expectations for the Penguins this upcoming season, it highlights the strength of the Pittsburgh hockey market while continuing to emphasize the importance of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby on a national level.
While Crosby might be nearing the end of his career, both networks want to televise his games as much as possible because he remains one of the best players in the league. He has been in the NHL for 20 seasons and remains one of the faces of the league entering his age-38 season.
They don't want to miss an opportunity to see him do something really special. He's also chasing down more history this upcoming season as he tries to become the Penguins' all-time leader in points. Crosby is only 37 points away from breaking Mario Lemieux's record (1,723) and also having the eighth-most points in NHL history.
One of the games on the Penguins' national schedule is against the Oilers on December 16 at PPG Paints Arena. TNT will have coverage of the game, and while it'll be great seeing Crosby go up against Connor McDavid, there's a good chance the network could witness history that night.
It will be the Penguins' 32nd game of the season, and considering that Crosby has been over a point-per-game player his entire career, he'll have a chance of breaking the record in front of a national audience. One of the networks could also call the game later in the season when he notches his 1,100th assist, becoming only the eighth player in NHL history to accomplish that feat.
Outside of records, the network scheduled games where Crosby will get to go toe-to-toe with some of the Penguins' biggest rivals and teams he has feasted on his entire career. Three of the four matchups against the Rangers will be televised on ESPN/ABC, including the opening night game on October 7. Crosby has 40 goals and 109 points in 88 games against the Rangers. His 109 points are the third-most against any team in his career, only behind the New York Islanders (137) and Philadelphia Flyers (134).
Speaking of those latter two teams, the Penguins will face the Islanders on February 3 on TNT and the Flyers on October 28 and January 15 on ESPN. Crosby will look to add to his point totals during those matchups and in the other games against them during the year.
The networks always love the Crosby-Ovechkin matchups, and with this year potentially being Ovechkin's final year in the league, it was obvious that both were going to put all three Penguins-Capitals matchups on national television. The first one will take place on November 6, and the other two will occur on April 11 and 12.
Who knows, maybe we'll get another dueling hat trick game for old time's sake.
Crosby also has a blast going up against Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon, who is also his best friend. The two teams will play in Denver on March 16 on ESPN. Crosby has had some great moments against the Avalanche during his career, including a natural hat trick in 2018. He brought the Penguins back from 3-0 down to tie the game in the third period before the Avs scored three more goals to win by three, 6-3.
The Penguins may be in rebuild mode, but Crosby gives everyone a reason to watch them on a nightly basis. You never know when he might do something special, and the networks are trying their best to prepare for that.
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