After opening their first major road trip with a loss in Chicago, the Pittsburgh Penguins keep pushing west Friday night with a stop in Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche. That starts a back-to-back run that continues Saturday in Las Vegas against the defending Western Conference champion Golden Knights, before the trip closes in Salt Lake City against the Mammoth.
Tuesday night was a rough one for Sergei Murashov against the Chicago Blackhawks, and the late-game mistake that cost the Penguins at least a point won’t linger on the highlight reel for the right reasons. Still, that kind of miscue is part of the learning curve for young goaltenders getting their first taste of the league.
While Pittsburgh was dealing with its own frustrations, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton turned its second weekend of the season into a statement. After a slow start, the Penguins’ AHL club responded in a big way, rolling to road wins over Hartford and Providence and outscoring those opponents 13-3 across the two games.
Ville Koivunen’s situation remains one to watch, too. No matter what contract he signed over the summer, his spot on the roster is not locked down, and he knows every game still functions like an audition with plenty of players positioned to challenge him for that role.
The Penguins have already thinned out their forward group by moving one winger, and adding Ryan Johnson from Buffalo gave them another body on the blue line. That kind of depth never hurts over the course of a long season.
Elsewhere around the league, Simon Edvinsson and the Detroit Red Wings are still stuck at an impasse after the defenseman requested a trade. Even with that request on the table, Detroit has no plans to deal him.
Tuesday also delivered a small slice of NHL history when the Tkachuk brothers combined for something the league had never seen before. Brady Tkachuk buried a natural hat trick against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three goals.
And one more number worth noting: 320 NHL players currently have a No Trade Clause in their contracts. That amounts to roughly 60% of rostered players who are eligible for the designation, and that figure keeps climbing every year.
In Other News...
Penguins Still Searching For Answers As Power Play Problems Grow
The Penguins power play has gone cold at an awkward time, sliding to 0-for-16 after a strong start and forcing the club to devote a chunk of practice in Chicago to cleaning it up. Dan Muse spent the session working through adjustments, a sign that the issue has become more than a short-term blip and is now something the coaching staff feels it has to address directly.
Muse also used the day to tinker with the broader lineup picture, including giving Elmer Soderblom a regular place in the fourth-line mix after what the staff has seen from him in game action. The changes suggest Pittsburgh is looking for a little more rhythm and balance across its forward groups while it searches for a power-play spark, but the exact combinations Muse settles on will be worth watching going forward. [Read more 🡒]
Erik Karlsson Just Became A Penguins Question Fans Cant Ignore
Erik Karlsson has quickly become one of the more interesting names hanging over the Penguins this season, not because of anything he has done on the ice in Pittsburgh, but because of where the team stands and what comes next. The veteran defenseman has been viewed as a potential trade candidate in a league where contenders always keep an eye on mobile, high-end blue liners, and his situation only gets more layered with the Penguins off to a 3-3-1 start and sitting fourth in their division.
For the Penguins, the question is less about whether Karlsson still matters and more about what kind of team they will be by the time the market starts to tighten. If Pittsburgh stays in the thick of the playoff chase, there is a path for this to remain a hockey decision rather than a transaction one. But if the standings slide and the deadline picture changes, Karlsson becomes the kind of storyline that can follow a club for months before reaching a resolution. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Early Start Is Raising Concern For One Clear Reason
The Penguins early stretch has already started to feel unsettled, and the concern around the club is less about the calendar than the tone around the room. Through the first seven games, the performance issues have been hard to ignore, and the questions now go beyond one bad night or a few unlucky bounces. When a team opens this way, the conversation tends to shift quickly from hope to diagnosis.
What makes it more striking is how familiar the unease feels to anyone watching closely, even if the setting is different from some of the leagues other early-season messes. Pittsburgh does not need a deep dive to know the results have been off, but the real issue is the sense that the problems are showing up in the kind of conversations teams usually try to keep behind closed doors. [Read more 🡒]