DENVER - The Pittsburgh Penguins’ early season has already exposed more than just bad breaks and uneven play. It has also laid bare a room that feels less settled than it did a year ago, with veterans, new faces and coaches all trying to make sense of a roster that doesn’t quite fit together yet.
That unease showed up again after Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, and the conversations around the team have only deepened since then. The questions aren’t just about why the Penguins are struggling. They’re about how a group with so much top-end talent can look so disjointed.
Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin were both available to the media Tuesday, and each delivered a version of the same blunt message in his own way. Earlier this season, Erik Karlsson had already described the team as being in a weird spot, and that comment now feels less like a throwaway line and more like a window into where things stand.
The bigger issue seems to be that the Penguins’ offseason left too much in the middle. General manager Kyle Dubas didn’t go all-in on proven help, and he didn’t fully turn the page toward a youth movement either. Instead, the roster landed somewhere in between, and coach Dan Muse is now trying to sort through players whose skills don’t always line up cleanly with the roles available.
Hendrix Lapierre is a clear example. He is a center on a team that already has four established pivots, and he is likely to be a healthy scratch Friday.
Filip Hallander’s departure also landed hard with some people in the room, since he was highly regarded by players near the top of the depth chart. The day after that trade, there were serious conversations in the hallways, along with words exchanged through gritted teeth.
The frustration makes sense when the results are this rough. Pittsburgh is 1-3-1 since the first five periods of the season helped produce two wins. The losses have come in messy, unusual ways, and even then the Penguins have somehow kept several of those games competitive.
The lack of clarity extends beyond individual players. It’s not that the room is worried about whether Rutger McGroarty or Avery Hayes is in the lineup on a given night.
What matters is whether the best possible lineup is actually on the ice. That’s why seeing players like Elmer Soderblom in the press box raises questions.
It’s also why camp performances that didn’t seem to match the results still led to NHL spots.
Right now, the team’s direction feels murky. There doesn’t seem to be a guiding principle everyone can lock into, and that makes each decision feel more uncertain than it should.
One thing that made last season feel different was the rookie presence. By January, the Penguins had used 12 rookies in at least one game, and that brought a noticeable energy to the group.
Even though only Arturs Silovs and Ben Kindel finished the season with the team, the club carried a youthful vibe for much of the year. There were moments like Kindel, Letang and Sidney Crosby staying on the ice for an hour after practice, playing pickup hockey and skill games.
That isn’t the same scene now. Sergei Murashov is the only rookie on the roster, and he could pass for the oldest player in the room.
Koivunen is the only other youngster. Soderblom has also been worn down by sitting as a scratch, and it showed.
Still, there has been one encouraging development: the top line is starting to click.
After Muse replaced Nick Robertson with Bryan Rust, the line of Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Rust immediately looked sharper. Crosby said Thursday the group’s familiarity helps them stay more predictable for one another.
“I mean, we’re familiar with each other. I think, as far as being predictable for another, you know, I think we know what to expect out there,” Crosby said Thursday.
“That’s a big part of it. Any time you play together, you want to be instinctive.
You want to be able to anticipate things.”
Crosby’s point makes sense on the ice. Rust can retrieve pucks.
Crosby can control them and move them. Rakell can distribute.
All three can shift into different roles depending on what the play demands, and Crosby said he likes that interchangeability.
In Other News...
Penguins Still Searching For Answers As Dan Muse Shakes Up Everything
The Penguins head into Ball Arena still looking to smooth out an uneven start, with Dan Muse set to tinker again before a late-night meeting with the Avalanche. After a frustrating loss to the Blackhawks, Pittsburghs issues have been hard to miss, and the staff is clearly searching for a combination that brings more pace, more structure and a little more consistency from shift to shift.
Muses lineup decisions are part of that broader reset, but the bigger concern remains whether the Penguins can find cleaner execution when the puck drops just after 9 p.m. ET. Special teams have been a particular source of frustration, and against a Colorado club that can punish mistakes quickly, Pittsburgh needs more than a fresh look on the board. It needs a response on the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Let Another Promising Start Slip Away In Colorado
The Penguins looked ready to carry an early road spark into a statement night at Ball Arena, getting first-period goals from Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust to jump on Colorado quickly. For a while, the game had the feel of a clean reset for a team that has been searching for steadier starts, with Arturs Silovs giving them a chance to hold the edge by making several key saves along the way.
Colorado turned the game completely around from there, riding a burst of offense that Pittsburgh could not answer as the Avalanche pulled away to a 5-2 win. The Penguins did get one encouraging individual sequence from Silovs, who stopped Nathan MacKinnon on a penalty shot, but the night still ended with the power play failing to cash in and another promising opening slipping out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Suddenly Have A Nicholas Robertson Decision To Make
Nicholas Robertson has already forced the Penguins to pay closer attention than they may have expected when they brought in a 25-year-old forward looking for an opportunity. Through seven games this season, he has given Pittsburgh real offensive value despite limited ice time, lower-line usage and a steady diet of defensive-zone starts. Even with those constraints, he has found ways to tilt shifts toward the Penguins and contribute to the scoring-chance battle.
Now the question is how much more responsibility the staff is willing to hand him. Pittsburgh recently bumped Robertson into a bigger role, and that kind of move usually says as much about trust as it does about production. For a team that is always looking for useful depth scoring, his next stretch could say plenty about whether this is just a hot start or the beginning of something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]