With "legends of the game" resurging on offense and young players exceeding expectations, these Pittsburgh Penguins have had their best October in years.
Forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins dropped a 3-2 shootout Tuesday – after a crazy overtime in which both teams had goals disallowed – to their cross-state rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, at the reverberating Xfinity Mobile Arena.
It’s the big picture that matters, and in the early part of the season, the Penguins have exceeded expectations.
All because their graybeard players have refused to show their age.
Maybe it will catch up with them later in the season, and the Penguins will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Or maybe, just maybe, their past-their-prime veterans – guys like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson – will surprise the NHL, keep their torrid early pace and have a positive influence on their younger teammates.
“These guys have been playing at a very high level for very long time,” Penguins first-year coach Dan Muse said after the game. “They’re continuing to do it, and I also think we’re getting some contributions from other guys throughout the lineup. We need that.”
Even Tuesday’s shootout loss had positives.
For one, after being badly outplayed in the second period, the Penguins – who were playing on back-to-back nights while Philly was well-rested – regrouped in the third stanza and tied the game at 2-2 on Crosby’s late goal. For another, goalie Arturs ‘Artie’ Silovs stopped 32 of 34 shots and stole a point.
“He made some big saves, especially in the second period,” Muse said. “I thought there was a lot coming at us and we weren’t generating much” in the second.
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Erasing Bad Memories
The Penguins are 7-2-2, with a six-game points streak, and are erasing the bad memories of recent starts.
In their previous four Octobers, the Penguins have been mediocre to disastrous: 4-7-1 last year, 3-6-0 in 2023-24, 4-4-1 in 2022-23 and 3-3-2 in 2021-22.
That’s 14 wins and 24 losses in 38 October games. Not good.
But this team has thrived behind players who are making the Penguins look like the second coming of another Pennsylvania team that showed it wouldn’t let old age be a deterrent.
We refer to the famed 1983 Philadelphia Phillies. The Wheeze Kids. A team that had oldies-but-not-done players like Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan in its lineup and got to the World Series.
Malkin, Crosby and Letang are playing like they’re in their 20s, not their late 30s. Consider:
- Malkin, 39, has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) – tied for third in the league – in 11 games.
- Crosby, 38, has 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 11 games. He is tied for fifth in the NHL in goals.
- Letang, 38, is plus-6, and his 21:14 of average ice time is third on the team.
“They’re legends of the game,” said defenseman Owen Pickering, 21, who played in his first NHL game of the season Tuesday. “They’ve been doing it for a long time, and it’s cool to see. I don’t think anything they do surprises anybody at this point.”
Add defenseman Erik Karlsson, 35, to the mix, and you can see who has been carrying the Penguins. Karlsson was minus-24 last season. He now leads the Penguins with a plus-8 rating and has nine points in 11 games.
Other Contributors
The Penguins have also gotten solid play from guys in their early 30s: Anthony Mantha, 31, has five goals and 10 points, and 32-year-old Rickard Rakell (injured) and 33-year-old Bryan Rust each have eight points.
While the oldtimers have led the way, Pittsburgh has gotten surprising production from 6-foot-6, 232-pound Justin Brazeau, a 27-year-old right winger with six goals and 12 points in 11 games. Brazeau, who plays on the second line with Malkin as the center, gave the Penguins an early 1-0 lead Tuesday.
Another surprise: the effective tandem of Silovs, 24, and Tristan Jarry, 30.
Jarry (4-1, 2.62 GAA, .916 save percentage) is having his best season in four years, and Silovs (2.44 GAA, .919 save percentage) is showing he’s ready for the NHL after playing well at the AHL level.
Muse said he needs the veterans to “continue doing what they’ve been doing and continue to push everybody along,” and young players like Silovs “to find a way to make an impact.”
If that happens, the Penguins’ three-year playoff drought – their longest since the early 2000s – will come to an end.
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