Gotta take one more look at last night. Results as good as a 7-0 victory on the road against a rival and team that eliminated the Penguins in the playoffs has to be savored for as long as possible before moving on to the next one.
Here’s some areas to highlight about the game worth a second thought this morning.
The Penguins have a revamped defense, it looked great
The Penguins have never been known as a defensive team (apologies to coach Kevin Constantine back in the day who tried his best to change that, it didn’t last very long). They’re a team of
stars and offensive talent. That might not change, but one of the items that has visibly bothered Kyle Dubas when he talked at the end of the season and again this week at the beginning of this season, was the total scoring chances and goals allowed by his team. He rightly pointed out the stats and figures of what Pittsburgh was conceding wasn’t good enough.
In response, Dubas changed out three defenseman from the end of last season. Another, in Sam Girard (who reportedly was playing through an injury at the end of the year) looked like a brand new player last night in terms of increased impact and ability to get around the ice.
At this point it’s wise to temper the excitement by pointing out it’s only one been one game against a flat opponent, but the change was drastic. Girard and newcomer Kaeden Korzcak formed a great pairing. Trevor van Riemsdyk looks sturdy and responsible enough, even on his off-side, to provide something a safety net for veteran Kris Letang. Declan Carlile has the tools with his skating and first pass to ride the wave of playing with Erik Karlsson.
That’s three new pairs and three brand new players for that group. Their cohesion for the first game was immediate. They broke up plays all over the ice, they were mobile, they defended, they started a lot of the offense with transition plays, it was a masterclass.
As Dubas has also stressed – playing defense isn’t just limited to the blueline. It has to be a five-player group effort with the forwards doing their part to support the effort. That was on display last night too, though not necessarily known for his offensive ability, Korczak drifted to the net on several occasions (including ending up with the primary assist on Filip Hallander’s goal when Korczak was posted up at the net). The forwards as a whole were great about sensing that and covering the point. Small things, but encouraging signs so far.
Forward depth is necessary
This was touched on earlier today, and without treading on that ground again too much it still deserves to be pointed out. It’s pretty likely that Hendrix Lapierre and Ville Koivunen wouldn’t have been in the lineup last night if Ben Kindel and Bryan Rust weren’t on IR and Andrei Kuzmenko wasn’t away from the team. Lapierre was one of the brightest lights of the night, the Flyers couldn’t handle his speed and puck handling.
The big question is easy to jump to, what happens next when some of those players return? Especially since Kindel and Rust were back on the ice yesterday in a limited fashion. As seen so far, it’s not really something that can be answered now or worried about. Those things have a way of working themselves out. The major key is that depth is necessary in this day and age and having enough capable bodies to throw at the problem will usually work out well.
The Pens can clear two roster spots by sending Rutger McGroarty to the AHL and waiving David Gustafsson, when the time comes. That nearly solves the problem even before Kuzmenko returns and Rust/Kindel are actually cleared to play. There could be a tough choice developing on what to do with the roster still being too heavy for 23 players, but as we’ve seen the amount of time the top 14 forwards are all healthy at the same time is typically about 0. Any minor ailment suffered by a current player could mean a trip to IR, where they only need to stay for seven days to kick the can down the road another week. Unfortunately, it’s likely an injury that’s yet to happen will occur that will be more severe to solve the good ‘problem’ about having too many capable players to fit.
Otherwise, the competition should fuel the best. As of now, you can’t really take Koivunen, Lapierre or Hallander out of the lineup next game, even if such options were available. That’s a good thing. Now, spoken or not, it becomes a little more incumbent on players like Connor Dewar and Elmer Soderblom to show that they shouldn’t be rotated out of the playing lineup in the near future.
Another Silovs opening night shutout
Arturs Silovs didn’t have to do a lot last night, making all 19 saves in his way. Last season, Silovs earned a shutout on opening night and then rotated out for the second game. Will history repeat itself there?
It makes sense, the Penguins start a stretch on Saturday of playing five games in eight days. A regular goaltending rotation worked last year to get both netminders into a steady rhythm. It remains to be seen how faithful the Pens will be to that idea this season but it goes without saying that they will need both goalies to play.
Whether or not Silovs can establish himself as the 1A or even starter will be one of the major storylines to track this year. Consistency has been an issue in the past, and that can only be revealed with a larger sample size as the season continues.
Special teams were special
A big part of Pittsburgh’s success last season was due to having the seventh ranked power play (24.1%) and sixth ranked penalty kill (81.4%). Vegas, who won their division and made it to the Stanley Cup Final, was the only other NHL team with top-10 units in both special team areas in 2025-26.
Both areas came through last night. The power play scored two goals on four chances, and encouragingly one goal came from their first group and the other from their second unit. It did take until late in the game for that first group to find the back of the net, but it could be something to build off for them in the near future.
The Flyers have long had a bad power play (worst in the whole NHL since 2021-22), so the PK might be tougher to judge off of one performance. The Pens still went 3/3 on the kill and even chipped in a goal themselves, an ideal start in that area.
Often in the NHL the special teams battle will dictate which team is going to win on a given night. Going a +3 like the Pens did is a strong indicator of success in the hopes that they can sustain last season’s efforts.
Another trade win?
Dubas’ attempts at acquiring a certain profile of player has been heavily talked about. He likes to bring in players in their mid-20’s who have talent yet failed to get established or find a niche. Egor Chinakhov was last season’s big add, but in ways Silovs, Connor Dewar and Elmer Soderblom all fit in that mold too.
This off-season’s big adds in that regard were Carlile, Lapierre and Nick Robertson. All three were instrumental players last night, none more so than Robertson and his two-goal performance.
This was a glow-up you could see coming as early as training camp, where Robertson started out with Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, deposing long-time Crosby linemate Bryan Rust. It started paying off last night in the first game of the season.
Robertson has a lot of elements to be excited about. With his speed he can help open the ice and stretch an opposition. He looks like he’s been working on his board play, even taking a penalty for boarding by throwing a hit on a defenseman that was a little over-aggressive, even if you have to like the idea behind it. He looked like a hungry player intent on showing what he could do, and it resulted in two goals (even if one was good fortune to score on a shot that was not on target until it hit the goalie’s skate).
Robertson looks like a hybrid of a Conor Sheary/Jake Guentzel type of winger alongside Crosby. He’s got wheels, he was sneaky enough to leak around the net and present a target for Letang to hit with a pass on the first goal of the season. Robertson has the finishing ability to be a viable scoring line forward.
All that for a fourth round pick two drafts from now! What a move that could develop into being value-wise if Robertson keeps it up. The Penguins didn’t make the huge splash of signing a star this summer, ironically found in their pursuit of Robertson’s brother, yet they may just have found something special that came a little more under the radar.
