The Pittsburgh Penguins return back to the United States did not go as planned. They suffered a blowout loss to Minnesota on Friday night, 5-0. They followed it up with a better effort on Saturday against Seattle, but fell in overtime 2-1, earning only one standings point this weekend and only four standings points in the last four games.
We are around the 25% mark of the season and there are trends we can start to see taking hold. For Pittsburgh, we have some really positive results, some that are fine, and some that might be problematic moving forward, especially if the positive results don’t stay positive.
Let’s take a look at who the Penguins are so far in 2025-26, starting with the very good
Great special teams
Right now, the Penguins own the top power play in the NHL. They have a league best percentage of 32.0 and are the only team in the thirties. It might not stay this high throughout the season, but they have something with the power play they are running this year.
Dan Muse and his staff have finally figured out how to get a functional power play with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Erik Karlsson out there together. In what was considered a foregone conclusion at the time of the Karlsson trade has not played out that way. It was a clunky existence.
Things look way better on the advantage. The spacing and puck movement are with purpose and the team is using the entire zone to spread the killers out more. What was stale and predictable now has multiple points of attack and the players on the same page. It has been a fun watch
The other half of special teams hasn’t been too shabby, either. The Penguins penalty kill is fourth best in the league with an 85.3% success rate. My initial reaction to seeing the Penguins were that high up there for their penalty kill was that their goaltending was carrying things. They do have a respectable .885 save percentage while shorthanded. However, the Penguins lead the NHL in xGA/60 while killing at 6.41. They are suppressing chances with their tactics while also getting good goaltending, a great combo.
Terrific goaltending
One of the biggest questions marks heading into the season this year for the Penguins was if their goaltending was going to be good enough. Not only has it been good enough, it has been one of their best strengths. The Pittsburgh goaltenders have shown out so far this year.
The only consistent thing about Tristan Jarry in his career is that he has been inconsistent. Thus far in 2025-26 he was really good before getting hurt. He has a .911 save percentage on the year.
One of the better developments this young season has been Arturs Silovs. Kyle Dubas traded a 4th round pick and Chase Stillman for Silovs in the offseason. Dubas has been rewarded with one of the better performing goaltenders in the league.
Silovs has been a great pickup to this point. Sure, he is wretched in the shootout, but he’s been great during the real hockey this year. It is looking like the Penguins will have a solid backup tender at worst with Silovs.
Tristan Jarry’s injury opened the door for Sergei Murashov to make his NHL debut a little sooner than the Penguins were probably thinking. Murashov was excellent in the AHL this year and had a .931 save percentage in his seven starts.
Since being promoted Murashov has looked the part of an NHL goalie. He’s started three career games and came in for Silovs in relief on Friday. In his limited action he has a .913 save percentage. His early sample has done nothing to quelch the rising expectations of the Russian netminder. He looks smooth, assertive, and on his angles. The excitement is completely valid.
The combined effort of the Penguins goaltenders has been great so far this year.
This has been a very much needed development and has overcome some of the Penguins weaker areas that the Penguins have suffered from. If this goaltending regresses hard the good vibes from the first part of the season won’t stay like that. Goaltending has done some heavy lifting for this team.
Offense at 5v5
The good news is the Penguins are decent at creating offensive chances at 5v5. They are in the upper third of the league in doing so
This isn’t too big of a surprise. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin continue to defy the normal aging curve mere mortals go through. Additionally, the Penguins depth is better than it has been in recent years.
Players like Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau, and Anthony Mantha have added more offensive punch to the lineup. Tommy Novak has had a slow start, but his skill set speaks to one that is more offensive than defensive. His playdriving has been solid.
The issue with the Penguins isn’t so much the generation part as it is the finishing. They don’t finish at the rate they should with the chances they do create
It isn’t egregious. They aren’t among the worst in the league. However, if they can get out of the negatives and break even here this would go a long way giving the team some wiggle room in games. Because it is wiggle room they are going to need given what their biggest weakness is…
Room for improvement defensively
The Penguins aren’t a good defensive team. I would argue that they are a bad defensive team.. This is an area that has the potential to cause them harm this season.
In general, I’m willing to look the other way on defensive miscues at the expense of generating offense. Unfortunately, the defensive metrics are in a place that the team might not be able to outscore the issue.
The only reason the Penguins have been able to survive playing the way that they have is because their goaltending has been tremendous. If it was league average the overall results would look a lot different than they’ve been. They very much need goaltending to stay among the league’s best to navigate their current defending.
| 5v5 | Rank | |
| xGA/60 | 2.76 | 25th |
| SCA/60 | 28.21 | 25th |
| HDCA/60 | 11.61 | 20th |
| CA/60 | 59.85 | 21st |
When you look at the individual xGA/60 results among the 465 NHL players who have played 200 minutes of 5v5 hockey, most of the Penguins are in the bottom half.
| Player | xGA/60 | Rank out of 465 |
| Blake Lizotte | 2.25 | 87 |
| Parker Wotherspoon | 2.45 | 176 |
| Connor Dewar | 2.46 | 183 |
| Ben Kindle | 2.52 | 219 |
| Tommy Novak | 2.58 | 242 |
| Erik Karlsson | 2.68 | 289 |
| Evgeni Malkin | 2.78 | 328 |
| Kris Letang | 3.02 | 408 |
| Anthony Mantha | 3.11 | 423 |
| Ryan Shea | 3.13 | 425 |
| Sidney Crosby | 3.20 | 439 |
| Bryan Rust | 3.39 | 459 |
If goaltending or the power play slips from among the league’s best the Penguins will not have a soft landing for their mistakes. The Penguins will need to improve defensively in order to stay consistently competitive. Games that Pittsburgh was winning at the beginning of the year have the very real possibility to become losses without their strengths being among the league’s best.
It has been a really fun start to the season after a few years of a really boring and bad product. I am hoping for the fun to continue.
Ultimately, they are walking a tight rope with how they’ve come about their success this year. We’ll see where the regression comes, both good and bad.
