We are two weeks into the 2025-26 NHL regular season and the Pittsburgh Penguins have probably produced better results than most people expected so far. They return from their west coast road trip having
won two out of three games on the trip and have won four of their first six games overall. Not only that, their underlying numbers have been mostly strong from a scoring chance and expected goals angle. They have had a sizable edge in both categories in every game they have played this season with the exception of the Saturday night game against the New York Rangers, while their overall numbers for the season are near the top of the league.
The eye-test has not always been there at times, and they have had some sloppiness in their own end, but that is to be expected given the makeup of the roster in some areas.
Still, they have played mostly well and the results have been good with a strong process behind them.
It has also come against some less-than-stellar competition.
The Rangers and Los Angeles Kings are the two best teams they have played, and neither team has had the look of a serious contender yet this season.
The competition will eventually get tougher, and that will start a little bit this week.
The Penguins play three games through Saturday, returning home on Tuesday to play the Vancouver Canucks, then traveling to Florida on Thursday night for a game against the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, before returning back home on Saturday to host the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Vancouver is an interesting team because it’s off to a great start in the standings with the same 4-2-0 record as the Penguins, but it’s gotten there in a very different way. The Canucks’ underlying numbers have been mostly abysmal, but they did play a really strong game on Sunday against the Washington Capitals. While the roster is flawed, they still have some high-end talent on the roster, including one of the league’s best defenseman (and players) in Quinn Hughes.
But there are still big questions.
Is Elias Pettersson going to be an elite scorer again? Will Thatcher Demko stay healthy and play well in goal? Is there enough depth?
It won’t be an easy game, but it’s winnable.
On Thursday the Penguins travel to Florida — a place they always seem to struggle — for what might be their toughest challenge of the season so far. The Panthers are not anywhere near 100 percent healthy at this point with Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk sidelined, but raced out to a 3-0 start to the season. Since then, however, the Panthers have lost four games in a row and will be coming off what will surely be an intense game in Boston on Tuesday when Brad Marchand makes his return to play against his original team. Thursday’s game will also be Florida’s first game back home after a five-game road trip. Between that and the injuries the Penguins might be catching them at the right time.
It might be a similar story with Saturday’s game against Columbus. The Blue Jackets have an outstanding young core of talent, and better days should be in their near future assuming they can bring that talent along and properly develop it. They have only won two of their first five games entering the week, however, while they will be playing the second-half of a back-to-back, with travel, while the Penguins will be rested the night before. It is a big scheduling advantage.
Given the opponents, the scheduling matchups and all of the variables, I really do not think it is a stretch to think the Penguins could — or perhaps even should — get three or four points out of this week. Florida seems like the most likely game they lose, even without Barkov and Tkachuk, but the other two look winnable.
The bigger intrigue for me this week is not necessarily about who the Penguins play or what they do with those games as a team.
It is how they handle some of their roster decisions.
Will the goalie situation remain a rotation? Or does Dan Muse stick with Tristan Jarry following his shutout in San Jose? Aside from the fact the goalies have mostly been rotating starts, Tuesday’s game would also be a chance for Artus Silovs to get an opportunity to play against his former team.
Overall, both goalies have mostly played well so you can not really go wrong with either decision for Tuesday. They each have a shutout already, while they have combined for a .905 all-situations save percentage that has them 11th in the NHL so far.
Then there is the question of the teenagers, forward Ben Kindel and defenseman Harrison Brunicke.
Will they play all three games this week? And if they do, will that result in them being sent back to their junior teams next week? Or at least closer to getting sent back?
Both players have already appeared in five games, and only have four more to go before the Penguins have to make a decision on them. Whether they stay in Pittsburgh all season or not the Penguins are still going to give them the occasional game off — as they already have — simply because neither player has ever played a full NHL schedule worth of games. Their minutes need to be managed at least a little bit.
What makes the decisions so interesting is that both of them have been among the Penguins best players so far this season. They have not just been good for a couple of teenagers, they have just simply been good. Really good. They look like NHL players right now. Kindel has the highest expected goal share of any player on the team that has played in more than one game, while Brunicke has the highest mark among the team’s defensemen.
They belong.
What makes Kindel’s play so impressive is that he is not doing this as as passenger next to one of the Penguins’ top centers like Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. He is driving his own line, while playing some extremely tough minutes.
There is a strong argument to be made for both of them staying in Pittsburgh. Will we see both of them all week? Will they continue to get their big minutes and big roles? If they do, how they play and continue to develop will be the biggest storyline of the season.
