Checking out what the Pens will see this season in the month of November
We found in our analysis of the Penguins’ schedule in the month of October that the NHL season’s first calendar month looks fairly manageable. Let’s check out what could be a much more challenging month for how November 2025 has been set up.
Month: November
Number of games: 12
Home-Road-Neutral: 6-4-2
Conference Breakdown: 6 vs. East/6 vs. West
vs. Metro Division: 3
Back-to-Backs: 3
The big feature of the month of November is fit around the middle of the month. In between four days off on each side, the Pens go to Stockholm Sweden for two games against the Nashville Predators. (Sidenote: sort of a bummer to not have a Pens game in Nashville this season in one of the top road cities on most people’s lists.)
That trade-off comes with playing two European games for the Pens’ first international* regular season games since a trip to Stockholm in 2008. Both teams won a game. The Pens and Preds have a shared international history — the two clubs met for two NHL regular season games way over in Japan in 2000.
(*International as in beyond Canada in the standard league cities, obvs)
Another note is the increase in competition compared to October. The Pens open the month of November with five-straight 2024-25 playoff opponents, including last season’s top regular season team in both the West (Winnipeg) and East (Washington). There’s also trips to Toronto and New Jersey involved, the latter typically a house of horrors for Pittsburgh over the years. It’s not going to be an easy road, particularly in the early going of November and will be a real challenge getting into the heart of the season.
The annual tradition of the home game on Thanksgiving Eve is in place once again. The Pens are 8-2-2 in the Sidney Crosby era when playing at home the night before Turkey day. They’ll be looking to fatten that record up against Buffalo that kicks off a three-game-in-four-days stint to end the month.