Even though the Pittsburgh Penguins let a 5-1 lead slip away against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, it is really difficult to be bothered by the first week of the season. Mostly because they still managed to walk out of that game with two points thanks to Tommy Novak’s second goal of the game. Also because it improved them to 2-0-0 on the season while playing two teams that not only made the Stanley Cup Playoffs a year ago, but also advanced beyond the first round.
Are there things to work
on? You bet. It is also important to remember that the early part of the season is probably going to have some weird stuff going on for everybody. It was a shortened preseason, a shortened training camp, and a lot of players are still probably getting themselves into their rhythm.
The positives far outweighed the negatives, and it has been pretty entertaining hockey as well. That counts for something.
Now the Penguins are into their second week of the season and things are going to really start getting interesting.
Some of the big storylines to watch this week.
- We are going to see goalie Sergei Murashov at some point, and probably at least two times. If Arturs Silovs received the start in each of the first two games, it seems logical to assume that Murashov is going to get the net in Monday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. The Penguins also have a back-to-back situation this week, with some travel, and both goalies figure to get a start there. Silovs was not challenged much in the season-opening shutout win against the Philadelphia Flyers, and despite giving up five goals on Saturday night he still had to make some big saves.
- Will we see Bryan Rust this week?
- If we do, who comes out of the lineup? The Penguins already have a roster crunch at forward given their depth, and that is true even before Rust makes his debut. Ville Koivunen and Elmer Soderblom, both of whom were outstanding in the season-opening win in Philadelphia, were healthy scratches on Saturday night so Ben Kindel and Andrei Kuzmenko could return back into the lineup.
- Seeing players like that out of the lineup can be frustrating, especially for the players themselves, but I do not know of a team that is going to complain about having too much talent. At some point you are going to need somebody to step into the lineup. Plus, iron sharpens iron and keeping such a competitive situation where everybody has to earn their spot, and earn their ability to keep it, is only going to make everybody better (in theory).
Now, let’s get into the games.
The schedule for the week begins on Monday with a home game against Winnipeg. It is also a game where the schedule is favoring the Penguins. Not only are they at home, but they are getting a Winnipeg team playing on the second half of a back-to-back, with travel, after it beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon.
Winnipeg is one of the teams dealing with some chaos at the moment as it continues to figure out how to handle the trade request of goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He has been the straw the stirs the drink there for a few years, and not having him in the lineup is going to expose a lot of those flaws that he was able to hide for so long.
Former Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner played on Sunday, so it is likely they will face Clay Stevenson on Monday night. Stevenson was claimed on waivers from the Washington Capitals before the season. The 27-year-old has played in five NHL games in his career.
Winnipeg still has Mark Scheifele and Joshua Morrissey, but this is not a great roster beyond the top people. It looks even worse without Hellebuyck.
In the middle of the week the Penguins start a brief two-game road trip. They are both against Metropolitan Division games. The Penguins were fantastic against the Metropolitan Division a year ago in terms of collecting points, going 13-4-9 within the division (that would be a 110-point pace over an 82-game season), and it was a big part of their success.
They are already 1-0 against Metropolitan Division teams this season thanks to their season-opening win against Philadelphia.
The divisional play continues on Wednesday with a road game against the Washington Capitals.
The Capitals split their first two games this season, including an emphatic season-opening win against the Carolina Hurricanes. Even though Washington missed the playoffs a year ago, there is good reason to be concerned about them as a playoff team this season given their offseason and the depth of the roster. They do not really have a big-time star anymore(Alex Ovechkin is still a big name, but he is not Alex Ovechkin as we know him anymore), but the balance in their lineup is as impressive as any team in the NHL, while they have a top-tier goalie in Logan Thompson.
From there, the Penguins set out for their first back-to-back of the season on Friday and Saturday.
It begins on Friday with a road game at the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Columbus is going to be an interesting matchup and it’s kind of hard to get a sense for what it will look like. The roster has talent, including reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, the recently acquired Matthew Knies and young center Adam Fantilli. They are also going to be coming off a six-day break, with their last game being an ugly showing, at home, against the Utah Mammoth that infuriated head coach Rick Bowness. How will the layoff impact them this early in the season? How will Bowness have them feeling after such a bad game and a week of practice? It is also a potential Egor Chinakhov revenge game, which could make for some intrigue.
The Penguins then return home on Saturday to complete the back-to-back against the Dallas Stars. Dallas lost its first two games of the season, but will play two games before making its trip to Pittsburgh, including a Thursday night game at Buffalo. Dallas should be one of the better teams the Penguins face this season, and it will also be a meeting of the Robertson’s as Dallas’ Jason and Pittsburgh’s Nicholas face off. Maybe the next time they play on the same ice sheet in Pittsburgh it will be as teammates.
Overall, this is a tough week with four games, including two against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders (Washington and Dallas) and a back-to-back thrown in there.
If the Penguins can get more than four points out of the week that should be viewed as a success and get them off to a strong start for the 2026-27 season. That should be the goal.
