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Here are your Pens Points for this Friday morning…
The Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to South Florida on Thursday to fight the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Pittsburgh, led largely by its captain, Sidney Crosby, and Tristan Jarry, had an answer for everything the Panthers did on Thursday night, leading to an impressive 5-3 win. [Recap]
Sidney Crosby has tied Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for the most multi-point games. [The Hockey News]
The Penguins have boasted an impressive, if somewhat unforeseen, record in the early stages of the 2025-26 season. But, as Gretz pens, we’re about to see what this team is really made of, as they prepare to play what’s expected to be a much more difficult slate of games over the next few weeks. [PensBurgh]
Some notable off-ice news concerning the Penguins: the team no longer owns the development rights to the Lower Hill District site where the Civic Arena once sat. The Penguins, along with Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Sports and Exhibition Authority, reached an agreement in 2007 to give those rights to the team as part of a deal that helped keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. But that deal expired at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Development rights have reverted to the URA and SEA. [Trib Live]
News and notes from around the NHL…
Is Gavin McKenna in any real danger of being unseated as the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 NHL Draft? [Sportsnet]
Former Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan will be joining the National Hockey League’s hockey operations department, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports. [TSN]
Thursday’s game between the San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers was monumental in many respects. San Jose notched its first win of the season, a 6-5 OT thriller, but what led to the Sharks earning two points was something else entirely: a five-point night from teenager Macklin Celebrini, including three goals and two assists. Celebrini is the fourth teenager in NHL history with multiple five-point games in his career, joining Dale Hawerchuk, Bryan Trottier, and Wayne Gretzky. Elite company. [The Sporting News via Yahoo!]
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.
Who: Columbus Blue Jackets (3-4-0, 6 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (6-2-0, 12 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcast in the local markets on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and FanDuel Sportsnet Ohio, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens are looking at a busy next week mostly spent on the road. The stretch starts out with a back-to-back set of games at home against the St. Louis Blues on Monday and on the road against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, followed by road games in Minnesota, Winnipeg and Toronto in a span of five days.
Opponent Track: After losing three of four games to start the season, the Blue Jackets have recently turned things around with back-to-back wins against the Tampa Bay Lightning and at the Dallas Stars.
Columbus is coming in on the second half of a back-to-back after losing 5-1 to Alex Ovechkin and the visiting Washington Capitals on Friday night. But that final score doesn’t reflect how close things were for most of the game. The Blue Jackets were within one goal until early in the third period, and Washington head coach Spencer Carbery said afterwards he believed “we just stole two points.”
Season Series: The Pens are playing in Columbus on Nov. 28 and Jan. 4, followed by another home game against the Jackets on Jan. 17. Last season the Blue Jackets won the first two games of the series before the Pens came out on top of a 6-3 victory in March.
Hidden Stat: Since the Blue Jackets joined the NHL in 2000 the Penguins have conceded just four regulation losses to the team (24-4-1 overall record). One of those four losses took place on Nov. 15 of last year.
Getting to know the Blue Jackets
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson
Cole Sillinger – Charlie Coyle – Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese – Isac Lundestrom – Yegor Chinakhov
DEFENSEMEN
Zach Werenski / Denton Mateychuk
Ivan Provorov / Damon Severson
Dante Fabbro / Erik Gudbrandon
Goalies: Elvis Merzlikins (Jet Greaves started last night)
Potential scratches: Miles Wood (injury), Jake Christiansen
Injured reserve: None
- Blue Jackets forward Miles Wood returned to practice Thursday for the first time since Oct. 13, when he took a high stick to the face he said left him afraid he had lost his left eye, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. He remained sidelined for Friday’s game against the Caps.
Season stats
via hockeydb, does not include last night’s game against the Caps
- Denton Mateychuk, a 2022 first-round pick skating on the Blue Jackets’ top pairing during his second NHL season, scored his second goal of the season on a Sean Monahan assist Friday night.
- The penalty kill has been a serious issue for the Blue Jackets so far this season. The team headed into Friday’s matchup with Washington having killed off an NHL-low 60 percent of penalties so far this season. You can find multiple examples from early in the season of the unit breaking down and allowing an opponent an all-but unchallenged opportunity at the netfront.
Top cheese deserves a second lookpic.twitter.com/aVycV4Utqk
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) October 10, 2025
- The Capitals took advantage of those struggles by scoring back-to-back power-play goals late in Friday night’s third period.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines (from Thursday’s game)
FORWARDS
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha – Evgeni Malkin – Justin Brazeau
Tommy Novak – Ben Kindel – Filip Hallander
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Caleb Jones / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Philip Tomasino, Mathew Dumba, Harrison Brunicke
IR: Kevin Hayes (upper body), Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body)
- The Penguins are heading into tonight’s matchup on a four-game winning streak. Should the Pens remain in the win column tonight, it would mark the team’s longest winning streak since November 2023.
- Sidney Crosby is on the rarest of goalscoring streaks. He has scored on all five of his last five shots while recording at least one goal in each of the Penguins’ last four games.
It’s the last October Sunday of the year, and just like that we have teams approaching double-digit games played in the NHL. The season is still young, but more data and games are rolling in.
Let’s go around the circuit to check on all the teams in the Metropolitan Division and check on the week that was. So far, this division is off to a great start, almost every team is on target or exceeding what was expected of them through the first few weeks of the season (the Rangers may be the sole exception and certainly aren’t in a comfortable spot at the moment).
New Jersey — Seven straight wins for the Devils! This week New Jersey came out on top against Toronto, Minnesota and San Jose, by a combined score of 12-4. Impressive stuff going on in NJ, it’s all systems go for them right now. Things don’t get any easier with a home-and-home starting today against Colorado.
Pittsburgh — Anyone else noticed the Pens lead the NHL with an all situations 13.97% shooting percentage? No matter! The vibes are sky high, let’s see how long this hot roll will continue. Maybe it goes for a while, and Pittsburgh fans deserve feeling good after a few years of just kinda hanging around. It’s a credit to them so far that they’ve been able to convert so many chances to goals and get off to a much stronger start than anyone could have expected.
Carolina — The Hurricanes were on the road and took on three elite Western Conference teams this week in Vegas (4-1 loss), Colorado (5-4 shootout win) and Dallas (3-2 loss). Tough road to go down there. As an aside and only place to ramble on this tangent; the game against the Avalanche featured them wearing Quebec Nordiques jerseys and Carolina wearing the Hartford Whalers getup. Many loved it, and obviously they are great jerseys and primo nostalgia but I did not like it. That’s just rubbing it in. You’re not the Hartford Whalers, you killed the Whalers by moving them. Imagine if the Penguins moved to Kansas City and played a game with the old logo? Awful. Hardly the biggest deal and maybe the point was a surface level ‘oh that’s nice’ reaction, just not a fan of teams reverting back to their franchise’s past that they were the ones who destroyed.
Washington — The Caps sandwiched two wins around losses to Vancouver and Ottawa to start and end the week. Last night’s game was fun, Alex Ovechkin celebrated game 1,500 with Washington in a 7-1 loss. Linus Ullmark lost his mind and skated all the way down the ice to get involved in a scrum. We could use more goalie fights these days.
NY Islanders — Over the past few years the Islanders have been scrappy, resilient, stubborn but typically boring or a chore. Now with Matthew Schaefer (and to a lesser extent Emil Heineman and a healthy Mat Barzal) are the Islanders…frisky and fun? It’s quite the turnaround from being a team to slog through games to now being an exciting one. This week will be a huge one to find out just where NYI stands, they have a road trip that takes them through Boston, Washington and Carolina.
Philadelphia — The Flyers might be getting their legs under them, after losing three of the first four games to start the season, they’ve now won three out of four including a shootout win over the Islanders yesterday. The Trevor Zegras experiment is going well out the gates, Zegras has eight points in the first eight games with Philadelphia. Goalie Dan Vladar has been playing some really good hockey lately too, strangely enough with his history.
Columbus — Last night was a nice response game in Pittsburgh for the Blue Jackets, who absorbed a tough 5-1 loss the night before to Washington. Columbus is another team on the rise that is a fun watch. Two or three times their defensemen had to pull pucks off the goal line to prevent goals, everyone is pitching in!
NY Rangers — Mike Sullivan is not having a good time so far in New York. The Rangers need to “learn how to win” and have played some situationally terrible hockey. The ironic thing is that Sullivan has gotten NYR above water in chances and shored up their awful defensive play from last year. They still have a lot of work to do to get things settled in, Sullivan hasn’t been able to erase the turmoil.
