Goalie Sergei Murashov stole the show for the Pittsburgh Penguins in their 3-2 shootout win against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. He was their best overall player, and one of the biggest reasons they won the game. It was an encouraging development for the young goalie as he seems to be finding his confidence. While he was keeping pucks out of the net and giving the Penguins a chance, their best non-goalie was forward Egor Chinakhov, even if it did not show itself on the stat sheet. He was everywhere
the entire game, creating chances, forcing turnovers, winning puck races, and just making an impact every time he was on the ice.
It has been a trend for him lately, and he is one of the players on the Penguins that is arguably playing significantly better than his season-long stat line would have you believe.
The stat line itself (three goals, two assists in 15 games) is a little underwhelming given the way he finished the 2025-26 season and the expectations it created for this season.
I do not believe that will continue.
He is playing like a guy that is on the verge of breaking out and going on a goal-scoring binge very, very soon.
Aside from the burst he is showing and the speed that is on display, a lot of the underlying numbers are painting the picture of a guy that’s just been a little unlucky so far. At least as it relates to his own individual goal-scoring.
The shots and shot attempts are still there. The rush-chances are still there.
Among Penguins players that have played at least 100 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time, the only players averaging more shots on goal per 60 minutes are Nicholas Robertson and Rickard Rakell.
Nobody is averaging more total shot attempts than his 19.1 (and nobody is really even close; Rakell is the only player over 16 attempts per 60 minutes).
Nobody is generating more chances off the rush than his 1.27 per 60 minutes (and again, nobody is even close; Rakell is second at 0.46 and Ben Kindel is third at 0.32).
Across the entire league, his 5-on-5 shot attempts/60 are 13th in the league. His rush attempts are first in the league.
That is what you want to see from him.
You want to see his speed generating chances. It is.
You want to see a guy with his shot unleashing it. He is.
The thing that is crushing him right now is the simple reality that nothing is finding the back of the net. At least not yet. There is an element of luck to it that is not going in his favor right now. He had one goal disallowed on a borderline goalie interference call earlier in the season. He has hit at least three or four posts this season, including one that echoed throughout the entire San Jose region on Wednesday.
He has also only scored on 4.35 percent of his shots shots on goal during 5-on-5 play.
Prior to this season his career number has been 12.7 percent during 5-on-5 play.
He has never, even in his worst seasons in Columbus, had a mark lower than 7.8 percent over a full season, and only once has it been below 8 percent.
If he were shooting at his normal career on the same number of shots on goal, that is two additional goals so far. That might not seem like a lot, but two extra goals to his season total would a 28-goal pace over a full season, which is very different from the current 17-goal pace he is on at this moment.
This is also just taking into account 5-on-5 numbers. There is a strong argument to be made he should be getting more power play time (where he already has two goals on only three shots on goal) which could also increase his production (or potential production) even more.
The thing I always go back to in discussions like this is production is not consistent in the NHL.
Effort is consistent.
Defense can be consistent.
Generating shots and chances can be consistent.
But production? And especially goal-scoring? Not always consistent. Almost never consistent. It is true for the superstars, and it is especially true for the players on the second, third and fourth tiers across the league.
A 30-or 40-goal scorer does not do it by scoring a goal every other game on a regular, consistent schedule. They do it by scoring four goals in two games, one goal in eight games, five goals in three games, zero goals in six games, and then a random hat trick. You do not really notice those cold streaks in the middle of the season. You do notice them at the start of the season when you see three goals in 15 games and wonder what is going on.
What is going on in this case is a lot of crappy puck luck. He needs to keep the same mindset and approach with the puck on his stick, and there is a high probability the goals are going to come. He is too talented, too fast and his shot is too good for the puck to keep staying out of the net. The process is there. He just needs to trust it.
