Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins Put on Their Sunday Best For Kraft Hockeyville in Sudbury

Kraft Hockeyville will bring out the best in the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night (7 pm: Sportsnet, SN1, NHLN). Both teams will dress most of their best players for the annual exhibition game.

In truth, it's been a long time since either team was at their best.

Both of these teams seemed to peak in 2017 when they met in the Eastern Final, and Pittsburgh went on to win the Cup. Quite famously in these parts, the Senators then embarked on a shaky rebuild. They traded away their core players, in some cases for a handful of magic beans, and haven't made the playoffs since. The Penguins held on to their core and have only won one playoff series since.

It feels like the Sens' stock is finally on the rise, but everyone thought that last year as well, so only time will tell.

The Penguins are again hoping to wring the last bits of greatness out of aging stars like Sidney Crosby (37), Evgeni Malkin (38), and Kris Letang (37). That trio won Cups in 2009, 2016, and 2017 and, to the delight of fans making the trip from Elliott Lake, all three are expected to play on Sunday night.

"When we're going to have this opportunity and this privilege to go to Sudbury to participate in an exhibition game against Ottawa, I think it's great for that community," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan told NHL.com. "It's terrific for our players. We all have to try to grow the game and try to connect with the people that love our game and support our game, so from that standpoint, it's a great experience."

The Senators will also put on their Sunday best.

Centre Josh Norris will be absent for a fourth straight pre-season game following another shoulder surgery last winter. Defenceman Artem Zub remains injured. There's no word yet on his timeline for a return.

Claude Giroux is the Senators' only answer to the Sudbury hype around Sidney Crosby – a duo that's had some great playoff battles in the past.

Giroux has called Ottawa home for over 20 years but spent his childhood in Hearst, Ontario. While Hearst and Sudbury are six hours apart, this is as close as he'll ever get to playing in his hometown in the north. According to Mike Zeisberger at NHL.com, he'll have many Hearst-area family members who will be there on Sunday, including his grandmother.

Other notes:

• If rivalries are partly measured by the number of past playoff meetings, this is a good one. There is no team in the NHL the Senators have met more in the post-season than the Penguins. They've met five times over the years, with the Penguins holding a 4-1 record.

• The Penguins have some players with Senator ties on their roster: enforcer Boko Imama and former fourth-rounder Jonathan Gruden. Imama played some games in Ottawa but was mainly in Belleville last season. Gruden was sent to Pittsburgh with a second-rounder in the ill-fated 2020 trade for the rights to goalie Matt Murray.

• The Kraft Hockeyville setup is different this year. Elliott Lake won the right to host the game, and part of the prize was $250,000 to fix up their local arena. But the arena isn't ready yet, so the game was moved to Sudbury. However, most tickets were distributed through Elliot Lake Minor Hockey and the Elliot Lake Figure Skating Club.

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