When Dan Muse first took over as head coach of the Penguins, he talked about what made the opportunity so exciting.
“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,” Muse said. “To have an opportunity to work together with everybody here to make sure that these players are continuing to grow, wherever they are in their careers – I just can't tell you how exciting an opportunity that is.”
Players from each of those groups shared their impressions of Muse going into the 2025-26 season opener. The biggest takeaways from those conversations are that Muse is organized, invested, and passionate.
“He's really easy to talk to,” Rickard Rakell said. “He sets the standard really high for us. I really like that about him, that he wants to get the best out of everybody. And that’s everybody in this room.”
Muse began reaching out to everyone right away, and even though he had just started the role, he quickly familiarized himself with each individual.
“When he called me in the summer, he knew my game really, really well when we were talking about it. So, that was pretty cool,” said Owen Pickering, Pittsburgh’s 2022 first-round draft pick.
“Yeah, you can really tell that he's been looking at a lot of our games, and our players. And it's fun,” Rakell said. “He's picking out things in my game that he really likes and small changes that can help me elevate my game. He's not scared of bringing new ideas or hearing our opinions about everything.”
Kris Letang agreed that there is a lot of communication, with Pickering saying that it’s not hard to have conversations with Muse around the rink.
“Since camp, we've been talking like, literally every other day,” new Penguins defenseman Connor Clifton said. “He’s been letting me know a couple of things, where I stand, and most recently about playing the left side... He's ultra-prepared. I think that's obvious listening to him, speaking with him. He has a level of intensity you don't usually see with coaches. I mean, I love it. Everything starts with work for him. He's gonna be the first to go put it in, put the time in and make a game plan and make a system.”
Muse’s hours have become somewhat legendary, with those who know him best saying no one works harder. A group of the younger guys saw that firsthand when they went over to nearby Firebirds for dinner and ran into Muse.
“He said he was just leaving the rink,” Pickering said. “He just stays at the rink at crazy hours.”
“Feels like he’s put in a lot of hours,” agreed Erik Karlsson. “He's a very dedicated guy. I think that he's very good at managing his time, which I'm sure he wants more of with everyone. But it feels like he's been very inclusive with everyone and been around a lot and trying to get to know everybody and see everybody.”
It’s part of why Muse is so prepared, something that stood out to Sidney Crosby.
“We got a ton of guys, probably more guys than we've ever had as far as camp is concerned. Probably not easy for a first-year coach, having to manage all that,” Crosby said. “So yeah, I think he's done a great job of just getting us on the same page and trying to get our identity and the way we want to play relayed to us clearly.”
The messaging Muse has used with the players is that night in and night out, they are going to be extremely hard to play against, and connected on both sides of the puck.
He also wants them to skate.
“He wants us up and down that ice,” Clifton said. “He wants our forwards pressuring and having good sticks and directing plays where we can close and force turnovers and ultimately get possession. He wants our D to be aggressive, close plays, force dumps.
“I think it's a fun way to play. I think everyone in here’s looking around like, yeah, we can get behind this – let’s skate, let's go pressure. And yeah, there can be plenty of mistakes, but we're gonna bail each other out.”
Clifton went on to say that as with any new system and new players, they are going to have to work out the kinks and work on finding the best versions of themselves.
“We tried to get on the same page as best we can and obviously to play real games, it’s going to come,” Crosby said. “But I think it’s been organized and intense. Competition for jobs. All that combined, it’s been good. It’s time to get going now.”
