Staring down the hottest team in hockey after two disappointing losses, the Pittsburgh Penguins downed the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 5-2. It was an impressive performance by the Flightless Fowl. They lost Rickard Rakell during the morning skate, Blake Lizotte missed the game because he and his wife were expecting their first child, and Noel Acciari was out with an illness. This on top of Kris Letang’s long term absence.
Pittsburgh was up against it, but they met the moment and entered the Olympic break on a high note. They did so without relying on Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin for tangible offense. Their production was driven by two rookies, including one (Avery Hayes), who made his NHL debut by scoring two goals in the first period.
I thought it was a really entertaining game and there were certainly moments where the Sabres could have finished and changed the trajectory of the game.
When the Penguins find themselves in Buffalo it provides an easier opportunity for me to see the team in person. So last night, I did just that.
You could easily tell the Sabres have won the town back over, again. A lot of these games in Buffalo I’ve attended over the years have resembled a Pittsburgh home game. While there were still a lot of Penguins fans I don’t think it was quite to the level it has been in recent years. There was a good vibe in the arena. It is always fun to see two teams with fun talent go back and forth.
What a debut
Earlier in the day, the news came out that the Penguins were going to be down not one, not two, but three forwards for the game in Buffalo. As mentioned above those players were Rickard Rakell, Blake Lizotte, and Noel Acciari.
Avery Hayes was given the call to live what I have to imagine was his ultimate dream growing up, playing in the NHL.
Hayes previously had a very impressive rookie and training camp leading up to the regular season. He impressed the Penguins brass along with Ben Kindel. Ultimately, the Penguins decided he would be better served getting big minutes down in WB/S instead of playing minimal fourth line minutes.
Let’s just say Avery Hayes was ready for the spotlight. Not many players are able to start their NHL careers by scoring a goal. Even fewer are able to do so while scoring twice in the game. Two goals in the first period of a debut? Pretty special
When you’re on a list with Jake Guentzel and Auston Matthews and a bunch of dudes from 1917 you know you’ve done something kind of rare.
His first goal tied the game at one. Hayes was able to showcase his footspeed by blazing around Jacob Bryson and making no mistake about finishing the play off. What was an offensive zone faceoff for the Sabres turned quickly into a moment Hayes and family will never forget.
This play happened right in front of me and it was super impressive how Hayes zipped through the neutral zone and then finished the play off like he’s done it hundreds of times before in the NHL.
Hayes of course wasn’t done. He confidently buried another one upper glove on Alex Lyons to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Anthony Mantha provided the slick assist
He sure looks like a guy who was ready for his moment.
Hayes’ promotion to the Penguins wasn’t a planned thing. This was circumstantial. I think how sudden everything happened allowed Hayes to rely on his instincts and act on them instead of overthinking things out there. Players new to the league will a lot of times defer and might carry some elements of imposter syndrome before they get settled to their new surroundings.
By scoring early and often you could physically see the confidence in which Hayes played with the rest of the game. He was very assertive and not shy to force the issue. It was tremendous to watch in real time. He was absolutely buzzing out there for the remainder of the game. Seeing his teammates authentic reactions to his success was also really cool to watch play out.
By starting his career like this he will now have the confidence newcomers desperately chase. Hayes left a huge positive impression on his debut and I hope to see more of him in the future.
Congrats to Avery Hayes, what a debut.
Rookie party
Avery Hayes wasn’t the only rookie getting in on the goal scoring action last night. Ben Kindel has started to pump goals in after his 19 game goalless drought. He scored a beautiful goal on a 2v1 to extend the Penguins lead to 3-1.
Kindel added an empty net goal which doesn’t sound all that impressive on the surface, admittedly. What was significant is the fact that late in the game his coach trusted him to play shorthanded minutes with the other team giving a full press. Kindel has earned Dan Muse’s trust and is now playing in high leverage situations.
Penalty killing is a recent task Muse has given Kindel. Just like everything else this year he is killing it.
Small sample size alert: In the 31:27 minutes he has been shorthanded he leads all NHL players in xGA/60 while shorthanded at 4.62. This includes 371 players league wide who have killed at least 30 minutes. I can’t say I’m surprised. This kid just continues to impress at every turn.
Kindel is shaping up to be a franchise changing player. What I mean is that by nailing the 11th overall pick it dramatically changes the trajectory of the rebuild/retool or whatever you want to call what the Penguins are doing. This is not normal. It is tough for the players at the top of the first round to make this kind of impact let alone a player who falls outside the top ten.
Kindel is the type of player you hope your team lands by tanking and drafting near the top five. When the Penguins won meaningless games to close the 2024-25 season and slipped to 11 I was pretty frustrated about it. I thought it was a blown opportunity to land a difference maker. Well, here we are. The Penguins got the difference maker, anyways. Now we get a front row seat to watching him develop into an even better player as the years go on.
Tage Thompson looks magnifique
One of the best parts of attending a Sabres game in person is watching Tage Thompson. He is such a great watch. He has turned into one of my favorite players to seek out because he’s doing things that look an awful lot like someone we are all incredibly familiar with and I’m just going to say it… Mario Lemieux.
No, I’m not saying he is even close to being on the same tier of player Lemieux is. What I am saying is they share a lot of stylistic similarities and to me that is really cool because some of the things they do aren’t easily replicated by others. You can’t fake the size both of those players have and you also can’t fake the hands skills that they possess and execute despite being that big.
Thompson’s power play goal last night reminded me of those horrible angle one-timer slap shot goals Mario would do on the power play. Tage didn’t take a slap shot, the 2026 version of this is a laser beam wrist shot. He had the size of a puck to hit and did he ever.
He had a puck jump over his stick in the slot during the second period and I had no doubt the puck was going bar down glove side if it was corralled. He’s the kind of player you dread getting time and space because of his shooting ability and the Penguins really dodged one on that sequence.
If you ever get a chance to see him in person. It is well worth it.
Other observations
Justin Brazeau is an enormous human being. He even makes Evgeni Malkin look like he is regular sized. Like Thompson, it is impressive to see a guy of his size make finesse plays with the puck. If Brazeau had more foot speed he would be the centerpiece of a contending team. That’s how nifty he is with the puck.
Anthony Mantha continues the theme of big guy with really good hands. I think Kyle Dubas needs to get him signed to an extension. Give him a couple years at ~5-6M. Who cares? They have 50M in space. Losing him would leave a significant dent in their forwards depth and how they allocate talent on their lines.
It’s always a treat to see Sid and Geno up close. We are 20 years into this and it never gets old. I’m still in denial that we are approaching the end of their era.
There’s more to Egor Chinakhov than his electric shot and the speed in which he moves. Sometimes guys that possess his kind of speed and shot are just north/south players and don’t really do other stuff. Chinakhov is very active out there and is a disruptive force. He plays with a purpose and you can tell he’s trying to make the right plays regardless of the zone he is in.
He had two zone entries in front of me that left me nodding my head. They weren’t anything jaw dropping, but just super effective. He had the puck entering the blue line and made sure the puck was not deflected away while spinning away from the oncoming check. Both situations led to him getting the puck towards the goal line with possession. Those are little plays, that if unsuccessful, can go the other way quick and find the back of the net (like Chinakhov’s early 1st period turnover on Jason Zucker’s goal).
It’s nice to see Crosby and Malkin continue to get 5v5 time together after penalty killing situations. It’s only a minute here or a minute there, but it is still way better than what Mike Sullivan was doing.
Erik Karlsson has a lot of jump in his skating and he is always asserting himself with the puck. There isn’t a moment where he’s not trying to press the opposition and take time and space from them, whether that is by skating or passing. He does so much heavy lifting out there. His fellow Swede Rasmus Dahlin is very similar in this regard. Both are players you appreciate more by watching how they operate for the entire 200 feet of the rink.
With that victory the Pittsburgh Penguins enter the Olympic break on quite the run of success.
They are currently one point ahead of the New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division with two games in hand. They are also currently above both the Sabres and Bruins in the Wild Card race. Who would have thought the Penguins would be in second place heading into this break? It has been a really fun season and should continue to be when the team returns to action.
Good luck to the Olympians. We’ll get back to Penguins hockey on the other side.
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