Well, you couldn’t have asked for a better start to the Pittsburgh Penguins 2026-27 season. Get revenge against your #1 rival after losing to them the previous spring, check.
Ruin their home opener, check. Overcome injury adversity to start the year, check. Have every player have a positive game to start the year, check. Score a lot of goals, check. Allow no goals, check.
It was a complete drubbing of the Philadelphia Flyers, and the 7-0 score mimicked more of a Steelers game than a hockey one.
You couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Here are the highlights
What could have been
I am certainly not suggesting that the Penguins could have run the Flyers out of the building every game in their round one series last year. I am going to say that there was a path to victory last April and the Penguins were flat-out uninterested in it.
This is how that playoff series could have gone if the Penguins were interested in showing any modicum of maturity instead of acting like babies chasing their emotions. It really was a pathetic display by Pittsburgh in their series loss to Philadelphia.
Last night, the Penguins played hockey and played it quite well. They weren’t running around with their heads cut off looking for physical revenge on Wednesday. They were focused on the right things and they were rewarded for doing so.
Pittsburgh finished the game with an 81.2 xGF% at 5v5. That… is a high number, and it may be the high-water mark on the year. In 2025-26, their highest xGF% at 5v5 was 78.0 against the Ducks on December 9th, and they actually ended up losing 4-3.
Everybody was pulling in the right direction and not distracted by nonsense. A recipe for success, who would have thought?
Third line domination
It was quite a performance by a third line of players who were not guaranteed to have a lineup spot at all coming out of training camp. They made the most of their opportunity and crushed it.
Filip Hallander, Ville Koivunen, and Hendrix Lapierre combined for a staggering 96.83 xGF% on the night. When your third line is dominating the flow of play, that would suffice on its own, but they decided to throw in some tangible offense into the mix.
Ville Koivunen received a much-scrutinized eight-year deal before the season. One of the biggest shortcomings as an NHL player that he had was turning his hockey IQ and hands into actual points at the NHL level. Last year, you could tell he was squeezing his stick and the lack of production was negatively impacting his other strengths. He can exhale because he scored a beauty on night one this year.
He used his spatial awareness to give Sam Girard a nice target and, from there, let his natural skill take over. If Koivunen has time and space, he will make good plays.
Filip Hallander had a monster game. He was superb positionally and put up a goal and two assists, which earned him the #1 star of the game honors. Hallander has been splendid the entirety of training camp and should be on the roster even if the injury bug didn’t have a feast. He is a seasoned professional in his athletic prime. I think he will be a very successful depth player for this team moving forward. Him being able to kill penalties isn’t going to hurt his cause.
Robertson is a Penguin
During the doldrums of summer, there was a lot of talk about the Penguins trying to acquire Jason Robertson. This did not materialize. The Penguins did acquire his younger brother, Nicholas. During camp, Nick was given a great opportunity to skate on the Crosby line. He is doing everything in his power to stay on that line.
Robertson is looking to be the next non-star player to find meaningful success playing alongside 87. I think one of the best examples of a player doing this was Pascal Dupuis. I consider Jake Guentzel a star, and Chris Kunitz was a bona fide top-six player even before he arrived in Pittsburgh.
Robertson kicked off his Penguins career with two goals last night. He scored the first goal of the season and really set the tone for the game.
It looks like Robertson has learned a few tricks from his new center because that kind of tip sure looks like the ones we’ve seen Crosby do many times over the years.
I also love this play because Crosby gets rocked at the beginning of the sequence. In the playoffs, the Penguins would have melted down. In this game, they kept playing and scored a goal immediately thereafter.
Robertson is a good finisher and if given proper looks, is going to put the puck in the net. He skates well. If he can be positionally sound and get to the spots that Crosby wants his linemates to be it could work out quite well. He can be that Pascal Dupuis type of winger where a depth player gets to play to their strengths by playing off of Crosby’s brilliance. A situation like this allows Dan Muse to spread the wealth on other lines, which makes the Penguins attack more diverse and dangerous. It is early, but Robertson scored in both preseason games and put up two in the first real one. Great start.
Other observations
I thought Sam Girard was very good. It was a tough start to his Penguins tenure last year. He had one of his better games as a Penguin, and his ability to facilitate the puck and make life easier for others was on display. The team desperately needs him to play well given the depth on the left side of the defense.
Arturs Silovs had an absolutely miserable outing in the preseason. He didn’t necessarily have a heavy workload last night, but he did exactly what he should have. I was a little surprised he got the start. Perhaps Dan Muse knew that Silovs has a knack for pitching shutouts in opening games
Erik Karlsson might get traded at some point. Until then, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of him in a Penguins sweater. What a player.
Evgeni Malkin has been relegated to the second power play. I think this may have been one of the major talking points prior to him signing an extension to stay with the team. It is important to set these expectations early, especially with a legend like Malkin. He scored on an excellent give-and-go with Hendrix Lapierre
Great awareness by Malkin to take advantage of the top penalty killer overextending the area he should have been covering and slipping into the soft spot he left behind.
Sidney Crosby has been the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins for 20 consecutive years. Sid is now the longest-tenured captain in NHL history. He was previously tied with Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings. He has also moved into the top spot among other Pittsburgh legends
The Penguins will get a few days to prepare for their next opponent when they host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
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