With their 5-3 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Thursday night the Pittsburgh Penguins improved to 6-2-0 on the young season, making them easily one of the biggest surprises
in the NHL through the first two-plus weeks of the season. Nobody expected this, even with a relatively soft early season schedule.
It has been fun to watch.
Along with the team itself being a major surprise, there have also been some surprising individual developments on this team through the first eight games of the season.
Let’s talk about five of them.
Ben Kindel
In the span of about four months Ben Kindel went from being viewed by a lot of upset fans as a reach of a draft pick to looking like he is already a damn good NHL player at 18 years of age. Kyle Dubas and Wes Clark may have simply cooked with this pick.
Kindel is a surprise not only for the fact that he made the NHL roster in his draft year — an extremely rare accomplishment for a pick outside of the top-five — but also because he has legitimately been one of the team’s best players. That is not an exaggeration or hyperbole, either. He simply has been, even if it is not yet producing a lot of goals and points for himself. Even so, he does have two goals in his seven games (and both of them were on staggering shots) and has some of the best underlying numbers on the team when it comes to scoring chances, expected goals and driving possession.
He is not a passenger next to Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. He is driving his own line, and doing so in a really impressive manner. His playmaking is obvious, his defensive play and diligence without the puck is shocking for a teenager and he just always seems to be in the right place, at the right time and always making something positive happen when he is on the ice.
There are not enough positive things to say about him and his play with the Penguins so far this season. He belongs here. Right now. They are nuts if they send him back to junior hockey. They are simply nuts.
Harrison Brunicke
Everything that I just said about Kindel can also be applied to Brunicke, the team’s 19-year-old defenseman.
His presence on the roster is not as big of a surprise as Kindel because I think there was always an expectation that he might be here this season. He is a year older, already had an NHL training camp under his belt (where he impressed) and was rapidly rising on the team’s prospect board. The surprise might be the fact that he has played really well as a 19-year-old defenseman in the NHL.
I think he has had a few more noticeable tough shifts than Kindel has, but that is to be expected with a young defenseman. Overall, though, it is hard not to be impressed with what he is doing and the way he looks when he is on the ice.
I thought one of the most impressive plays he made so far is one that did not even result in a goal. He took a pass off the rush in San Jose, deked around a defender and then just absolutely wired a shot that rang off the post. If that shot had bounced into the net instead of away from it, it would be one of the Penguins’ prettiest goals of the season. Even as it is, it was still a fantastic glimpse into the skill and talent he possesses and what he can do on the ice and with the puck.
The Penguins farm system has improved significantly over the past two years. Kindel and Brunicke are two shining examples of it, and they are already making impacts in the NHL. It is encouraging for both now in the short-term and in the long-term future.
Justin Brazeau
Evgeni Malkin has two new wingers in Brazeau and Anthony Mantha, and they have been an impressive line offensively so far. Putting two big bodies on Malkin’s wings has taken some of the physical pressure off of him, and at times they have simply bullied their ways to goals. Brazeau has also showed some shockingly smooth hands and already has five goals on the season. They have not been garbage goals, either. Some of them have been strong displays of skill. He is not going to keep scoring goals at this pace, but he did enter this season having scored 16 goals in 95 games (around 15 goals per 82 games) and has had some big offensive years at the lower levels. Maybe there is something here.
He scored 61 goals in his final OHL year (and 39 the year before), and had some strong years in the American Hockey League offensively.
It always just seems to take him a couple of years at each level before he figures it out and really starts to shine.
Late bloomer? Just a lucky streak to start the season? Whatever it is, I do not think anybody expected five goals and eight total points from him through the first eight games of the season.
The goalies
This has been the Penguins’ biggest question mark for years, and it is one of the things that still gives me pause about fully buying into this fast start for the season. We have seen this movie from Tristan Jarry before where he plays great early in the season and then struggles in the second half. So we will have to just see how it plays out. But the Jarry-Artus Silovs duo has been mostly fantastic this season as part of their rotation.
Between the two of them their .920 all-situations save percentage is the fourth-best in the NHL and their .934 save percentage is sixth-best in the NHL.
They each have a shutout, they have each been solid by making the routine saves and an occasional spectacular save. They have simply been very, very strong.
Erik Karlsson
It was very tempting for me to include Connor Dewar or somebody from the fourth line in this spot, but I will give them an honorable mention for their strong play. They have really had some nice momentum-changing shifts in games. Still, I am going to go with Karlsson as one of the biggest surprises, even if that seems weird to say about a three-time Norris Trophy winner and future Hall of Fame player.
It just got to a point with him during his first two years in Pittsburgh where most of the fanbase just gave up on the idea of him being the player they hoped he would be. The points and the offense were always there, but the overall play was not always there. The mistakes. The lapses. It was almost as if he had finally become the player his harshest critics had always thought he was throughout his career, and that maybe his days as an elite player were finished.
Maybe they are not? Because these first eight games this season might be the best hockey he has played as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Which is kind of wild to say because he has yet to score a goal and has five assists in the first eight games. The offense is not yet there, but the overall play mostly is. Whether you think the Penguins can make the playoffs again before his contract expires with him being a part of that, or if you still want to view him as potential trade bait, him playing well is an important development.
Maybe Mike Sullivan hated him. Maybe he hated Mike Sullivan. Maybe they hated each other. Maybe Dan Muse is just getting the best out of him, as he seems to be doing with everybody on the roster right now.
