Just sharing some random thoughts as the Pittsburgh Penguins continue their road trip and their push for a spot in the 2025-26 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
1. The Kris Letang situation
Kris Letang is one of the giants in the history of the Penguins franchise. He has had the best career with the Penguins of any defenseman that has ever played for the team. His name is on the Stanley Cup three times, with him scoring the Cup-clinching goal in one of those championships. He has been a pleasure to watch for years and has been a major part
of their core for two decades. It is hard to pile on him. He is one of the players that will always (and should always) be held in the highest of regard around here. He is an all-time great Penguin. It is also hard not to pile on him at this point given the way his play has rapidly regressed.
It just seems like over the past few weeks, no matter who has been paired with, no matter what situation he has been put into, or no matter who he is playing against, that negative things are happening for the Penguins when he is on the ice.
The numbers support that position.
Over the Penguins past 10 games they have allowed a total of 28 goals.
Letang has been on the ice for 14 of those goals, which are two more than any other player on the team during that stretch.
Letang himself has only played in eight of those games.
During 5-on-5 play over that stretch their expected goals share with him on the ice is down to only 44.6 percent, while they have been outscored 4-8 with him on the ice. Without him on the ice during that stretch they are outscoring teams 17-9 with a 54.2 percent expected goals share. What is perhaps most concerning about that is he is getting heavy offensive zone starts (more than 55 percent of his shifts have started in the offensive zone) and he is still losing ground and getting scored on. It also does not matter what grouping of forwards or what defensemen he is getting paired with. All of the combinations are playing worse. It has been especially bad with Ben Kindel.
The combination of the Kindel line and the Letang defense pairing has been outscored 0-7 the past 10 games with a 38 percent expected goal share. Kindel’s line without the Letang pairing is outscoring teams 6-1 with a 51.3 percent expected goals share.
(In Letang’s defense, his pairing has also been better away from the Kindel line with a 4-1 goals advantage and a 49 percent expected goal share, so for whatever reason that combination of players is simply not clicking right now.)
Is he still dealing with the effects of the injury that sidelined him before the Olympic break? Is it just a bad slump? Has father time finally caught up to him? Has he failed to adjust to that? Is it all of the above?
It is probably all of the above.
Whatever the case, it is becoming a big problem for the Penguins and one they are going to have to figure out. They do not really have many other legitimate options as an alternative.
2. The Penguins are doing everything they can without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin
You need some sort of top-tier talent to win in the NHL. But that top-tier talent alone is not enough. You always need help and quality depth around them, and one of the things I always look for when trying to determine the top contenders in a given season is what they are doing when their best players are not on the ice. There is always going to come a stretch in a season, and especially in the playoffs, when your best players, no matter how good they are, are not scoring goals. You are going to need somebody else to step up in that place and provide some scoring and being able to tilt the ice.
The Penguins have been fairly good at that for most of the 2025-26 season, but the past few games have been a major test for it with Sidney Crosby still dealing with his Olympic injury and Evgeni Malkin being suspended.
They have played eight games so far without Crosby.
They have played three games without both of them.
In the first eight games post-Olympic break the Penguins are 3-2-3 and have earned nine out of a possible 16 points. That is acceptable. More than acceptable.
In the first three games without both of them, they are 1-0-2 and earned four out of a possible six points. More than acceptable.
You can quibble about this and say “well, they are still losing games in shootouts and giving away points.” But, for me, it is hard to complain about lost points when you are literally playing without your two best players. Points are points, and as long as the NHL’s point system and standings are set up the way they are, this is what the system looks like and what every other team in the league is playing under. You can not really get caught up in looking at each individual game as its own universe. You need to look at these games in larger groups and look at them through a bigger picture. I said coming out of the break the Penguins needed to just play .500 or better hockey until Crosby gets back. They just needed to find a way to scratch out some points until both he and Malkin get back.
They are doing it.
It becomes even more important when you also subtract Justin Brazeau and new addition Sam Girard from the lineup due to their recent injuries.
It also continues what has been a strong showing by the Penguins when neither player is on the ice, whether due to injury, suspension or just sitting on the bench when their lines are off the ice.
Entering play on Thursday, the Penguins have played 1,702 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey with neither Crosby or Malkin on the ice. They are outscoring their opponents in those minutes 67-66, have a 52.5 percent shot attempt share, a 53.7 percent scoring chance share, a 54.1 percent high-danger scoring chance share and a 53.5 percent expected goals share.
They are tilting the ice without them. They are outplaying teams. It is a testament to how good Ben Kindel has been in helping to run the third line no matter who is playing around him, and also a testament to how good and consistent the fourth line has been.
None of those numbers were that good a year ago. Or the year before. This is one of the more surprising developments of this season. Also one of the most important.
3. Egor Chinakhov has been the Penguins best player this week
There is really nothing else to say at this point, but this guy rocks. There have been a lot of players to step up recently, but nobody has stepped up more than Egor Chinakhov. He has been the Penguins’ best player since the start of the weekend. In the past three games he has five total points, completely changed the game against the Boston Bruins with his power play goal, and then made the play in overtime to earn possession of the puck to help set up Tommy Novak’s game-winning goal.
The shot and goal-scoring get all of the attention and what everybody always talks about. He is a strong playmaker. He is lightning quick. He is a far better and more aggressive defensive player than he was advertised to be. He just simply looks like a player. What a find. What a trade. What a player.
4. Elmer Soderblom’s first impression
It is still a very early and very small sample size for the Penguins’ only trade deadline addition, Elmder Soderblom, but he has been a mostly positive presence. The first impression so far is that despite his massive size he seems like more of a skill player than a power, physical player, but there is absolutely some skill there. He has had several quality looks, and even rang a shot off the post. Not every trade for a talented player that has yet to put it together is going to pan out the way the Chinakhov trade has. It is still okay to take the swings and see what happens.
Soderblom probably does not have a spot when everybody is healthy and back in the lineup, but for now he has been a positive addition. You only get one first impression. This is a good one for him.
