The Pittsburgh Penguins started the season off strong.
Opening weekend across the NHL has concluded, and it was a fruitful one for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Back-to-back 6-2 victories have the Penguins feeling good early in the 2022-23 NHL season.
The Penguins dominated the Arizona Coyotes on opening night, outshooting them 53-28. Sidney Crosby led off the scoring just 1:22 into the season, his first of three points on the evening, and the Penguins haven't slowed down since.
They followed up that performance with a matching effort on Saturday night against the three-time defending Eastern Conference Champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Crosby collected another three-points, and the Penguins controlled the majority of the game.
Pittsburgh's penalty kill unit was the only facet of the game that had a less than stellar start to the season, allowing three goals on nine opportunities. That unit is made up of new faces such as Jan Rutta, Ryan Poehling, and Josh Archibald.
Marcus Pettersson and Kasperi Kapanen are also seeing an uptick in usage on the man disadvantage. Combine that fact with Teddy Blueger, the Penguin's top penalty-killing forward, being absent, and there are plenty of reasons to expect improvement from that unit.
The Penguins not only dominated the shot share during these two games but created high-danger chances with ease. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins have created 33 high-danger opportunities at even strength through two games while mustering 72 total shots. Which means 46 percent of their shots have been high-danger opportunities. Comparatively, only 25% of shots from Penguin's opponents have been considered high-danger.
The Penguins dominated almost every facet of the game against the Coyotes and the Lightning. While it's a small sample size, the Penguins look dangerous to start the season.
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