The Pittsburgh Penguins have had an outstanding start to the 2025-26 NHL season.
They have won five of their first seven games and have been the better team in all five of the wins. They have gotten great goaltending, contributions from all four lines, adequate play from the defensemen, and some good special teams play. They also look completely bought into head coach Dan Muse and his staff.
The goaltending is arguably the biggest surprise so far since Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs have a combined .920 save percentage. Silovs is up to a .919 save percentage after his stellar performance against his former team on Tuesday (Vancouver Canucks), while Jarry is at .922 after shutting out the San Jose Sharks last Saturday.
When it comes to goal scoring, it’s not just the top players scoring all the goals. Justin Brazeau, who signed with the Penguins on July 1, leads the team in goals with five and has eight points. His hot start came completely out of nowhere, but there’s nothing fluky about it.
Yes, he’s riding a 35.7% shooting percentage, and it won’t stay that high all season, but he’s going to the greasy areas and showing off his soft hands, both as a goal scorer and a playmaker. He’s been an excellent fit next to Evgeni Malkin and Anthony Mantha. Speaking of Mantha, he had a rough first three games, but has three goals in his last four games and six points in seven games to open the season.
Connor Dewar has two goals in seven games and is the straw that stirs the drink on the fourth line. He forechecks his tail off every shift, and Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari both feed off it. Dewar’s forechecking below the goal line ultimately set up his tying goal against the Canucks when he tipped a Parker Wotherpoon shot past Kevin Lankinen.
Ben Kindel may only have one goal, but he’s been getting better in each game he plays in and is making a serious push to stay with this team for the entire year.
Defensively, Parker Wotherspoon has been a great partner for Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang is coming off his best performance of the season on Tuesday. Ryan Shea has also strung together three great games in a row. Harrison Brunicke has shown that he belongs in the NHL past the nine-game trial. Caleb Jones enjoyed some nice moments against the Canucks. As a six-man unit, they’re doing a great job protecting the front of the net and not allowing a lot of odd-man opportunities, both of which were issues for last year’s team.
The vibes are through the roof, but they will be tested when the Penguins travel to Florida to take on the Panthers on Thursday. Even though the Panthers are only 4-4 to open the season, don’t let their record fool you. They are still, by far, the best team the Penguins will have faced to this point, and are the back-to-back champions for a reason.
Dubas Provides Key Update On Rutger McGroarty’s Status
Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas provided a key update on one of the team’s top prospects Wednesday.
It’s a great opportunity for the Penguins to show the hockey world that they really might be better than anyone predicted them to be this season. Yes, the Panthers will be without Aleksander Barkov for the entire regular season and Matthew Tkachuk until December/January, but they still have Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, and Sergei Bobrovsky.
This is a Panthers team that loves getting under opponents’ skin and rattling players. It’s 60 minutes of every shift that feels like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Assuming Kindel and Brunicke play, how do they hold up? Does Jarry continue to match Silovs if he gets the start? Can Brazeau continue his hot start? Can the special teams keep their momentum going? Will Bryan Rust notch his first goal and put together a good performance? He hasn’t looked right since returning from his recent injury.
It may only be the Penguins’ eighth game of the year, but it has the look and feel of a measuring stick game. It’ll be fascinating to see how the Penguins look once the puck gets dropped.
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