Christmas break in the NHL ends today, and your favorite hockey team is going to be back on the ice,

and they're going to be practicing playing the right way.

I'm going to talk about what that means in this slightly unusual episode. Good morning to you. Good Friday morning. I'm Dan Kavachvich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or baseball, I also happen to offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates that I hope you'll take the time to check out.

Practice is at 11 a.m. and Cranberry.

And the next games are the next two days,

a weekend home and home set with the Islanders Saturday in Elmont, New York,

and Sunday back here at PPG Paints Arena.

I guess you could call these significant if you're one of those people who presume that the

islanders, once they get more of their injured guys back, are going to make their usual run

and stay on the periphery the way they always seem to.

So it's like you could file this under the same category that you did the game the other night against the flyers.

There's a certain group of teams that can be expected to be right in that same category and every point counts, including the points that you don't allow the other guys to have.

And I would say that there's a certain good way to beat the islanders,

except the Penguins aren't exactly experts on that sort of thing

and haven't been for about 50-plus years.

But there is a right way, in Mike Sullivan's eyes, to play the game.

That doesn't mean he's correct.

That doesn't mean he's infallible.

It certainly doesn't mean that his system is infallible.

But now that the penguins are on their first real role of the season,

and now that they're scoring goals while at the same time,

allowing less offense to the opponent.

...