After the Penguins’ season ended in Game 6 of their opening-round series with Philadelphia, the sentiment in the locker room was that the team needed some time to process their emotions.
During locker cleanout day, the players were able to start putting into words what a remarkable year they had, despite the disappointing finish.
“It’s exciting times. Having been a lot of fun here lately,” Erik Karlsson said. “This year was a very positive year.”
The Penguins started out as a team with low external expectations, and ended up returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2022. They did so without ever deviating from the plan that President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas has put together to ensure the Penguins can return to legitimate contention.
“I feel like, as a group, we probably did a lot more than people expected. So, I think that’s something to be proud of,” captain Sidney Crosby said.
There are a lot of reasons for such a turnaround. But the biggest one the players outlined was that “the group of guys in here was an awesome group,” Bryan Rust said.
The veteran forward has played parts of 12 NHL seasons. He has been part of so many great teams, including two Stanley Cup championship-winning squads here in Pittsburgh. And for him, this one was up there.
“The guys in here from Day 1 made this one of my most fun years,” Rust said.
Karlsson, another NHL veteran, agreed that the personnel mix was where it all started. As Head Coach Dan Muse put it when he took over in June, “you have legendary players of our game here in Pittsburgh. Future Hall of Famers. You have these exciting young players that are coming up and then you have a little bit of everything in between.” And that dynamic worked so well.
There was 18-year-old rookie Ben Kindel playing poker in the meal room with his teammates like a seasoned veteran. There was 39-year-old Evgeni Malkin taking the Russian-speaking players to dinner. There was Crosby and Karlsson going to escape rooms at the Mall of America with a whole crew. There was Rust, hosting the group for a Super Bowl watch party. The list goes on and on.
“As a group, I feel like everybody likes each other, everybody gets along, everybody wants to do well for each other, which is the number one priority to have a good team,” Karlsson said.
That dynamic extended outward, with Dubas, Muse and their staffs setting the tone. They made everyone around the team on a consistent basis, particularly on the road, feel like they were a part of it and that they contributed in some way to the team’s success.
The four-game, nine-day road swing to Seattle and Western Canada was a great example of how this group gets along. With more off days than usual surrounding the games, it was a prime opportunity for team bonding.
The players held their rookie dinner at the end, while the staff had outings of their own. Everyone struck a good balance of working hard and having fun, and the Penguins ended up going a perfect 4-0 on the trip, with a statement-making win over Edmonton and the vibes sky high.
But even when times were tough, like that stretch in December when the Penguins struggled to hold onto leads, everyone still looked forward to coming to work and seeing each other every day.
And when the puck dropped, you knew that the guys were going to do everything they could to come out on the right side of the result. That five-game trip in March, which could have been make-or-break, was another excellent example. Seeing the Penguins go to battle, against Carolina in particular, was thrilling to witness.
“It was really fun to be part of this group and to see how we played and the energy that we played with,” Crosby said. “I think people were able to see that watching games, and we felt it here in the room.”
There’s obviously a lot of work to do moving forward, and there could be some personnel changes next year, depending on players’ contract situations. But the energy Crosby mentioned is the biggest reason for optimism, and that will still be there, as Muse and the staff played such a significant role in fostering that.
"When you're in a room for over like six months of time and you play the game every single time, there's a feeling that gets inside of you,” Kris Letang said. “It was not a group that was just going out there and winning with skill. Some nights, would go their way or not. It was the pace of the game we played at and the commitment we did, playing better defensively. So yeah, it can always go up from there."
