Musings: Strong Start Continues with Win Over Defending Champs

Before training camp began, Sidney Crosby was asked about his expectations for the year.

“I would say the expectations from the outside are pretty low, but that doesn't change my approach or our approach as far as trying to go out there every night and win games. That’s how I look at it,” the captain said.

He has done his part to do that for the Penguins. Crosby opened the scoring for Pittsburgh on Thursday in Florida, extending his goal streak to three games as part of a 5-3 victory. And after defeating the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions on their home ice, Pittsburgh is 6-2 to start the year, winning four in a row.

Insert whatever caveat you want here – that doesn’t change the fact that it's hard to win in this league. And the Penguins have been finding ways to do so. That has been Crosby’s biggest takeaway to date, and something he has brought up the few times he’s been asked about the driving force behind the team’s success.

Tonight, they got contributions from all over. While it was a quieter night for the trio of Anthony Mantha, Evgeni Malkin and Justin Brazeau, who have been fantastic, the other three lines chipped in with goals at even strength.

Crosby’s winger Rickard Rakell made it 2-0 in the first period with his third of the year. Ben Kindel, the 18-year-old rookie, fired home an absolute missile on a nice feed from Tommy Novak in the second period. “Beautiful pass, beautiful goal,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse said. And in the third, Connor Dewar got his third of the year, as his line with Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari continued their strong play.

“That's huge for us, and I think we've seen that in a number of games,” Muse said. “Even sometimes in the games where maybe it's not showing up on the score sheet, we're getting chances from a lot of different people. I think that's been consistent. We want that to continue to be part of what we do.”

Another key takeaway for Muse is how the Penguins have stuck with it in tight games. Every time the Panthers got within one, Pittsburgh responded the right way.

“We got some timely goals. When they scored, we were able to bounce back,” Crosby said. “That's big. When teams get momentum like that, they score, we got to be able to respond, and we did a good job with that at key times.”

Crosby made it 5-3 at the 11:49 mark of the final frame, and the Panthers pushed hard to get back in it, just as they had done in the second. But Tristan Jarry was an absolute brick wall between the pipes. He stopped 34 of 37 shots, with many of them being high-quality looks.

“Jars was really, really good,” Crosby said. “He bailed us out of a lot of mistakes that we made.”

It has been wonderful watching Jarry come out of the gate like this after a 2024-25 season filled with trials and tribulations. He didn’t play well at the start of last season, and everything sort of snowballed from there. So, as Jarry said following a shutout against San Jose in his previous start, one of his biggest areas of focus was improving his starts.

“I think it's just a mentality, going out there with the confidence and standing tall and being able to know that you're going to make those first saves. And I think that's something that's changed,” Jarry said.

He was locked in from start to finish in Fort Lauderdale, and got rewarded.

“Every time I get to stand in the net, it's another chance to have fun and just kind of show who I am,” he said. “I think that's kind of what I wanted to do this year, is just put my best foot forward. And I think Arty and I have done a great job.”

‘Arty’ is Arturs Silovs, the other half of Pittsburgh’s current goalie tandem. The Penguins have been alternating starts between the two. Muse said it’s not something they necessarily planned, and they aren’t locked into such a rotation for the rest of the year. It’s something they are evaluating game-to-game, but for now, it’s certainly working.

“Arty and I have both played really well, I think, to this point, and we're getting the points that we need. I think that you can’t argue with that, and I think we've both been having a lot of fun with it,” Jarry said.

He mentioned how Muse told the group it’s a fresh start for everyone, and that is something the Penguins have responded to.

“It's a different atmosphere than it used to be,” Kris Letang said. “A lot of guys are on a deal that they have to prove themselves. There's a lot of guys that play hungry every single night. It's also a new voice. Guys are coming to the rink, and they want to get to know that system, and they want to thrive in that new environment. I just think it's just a different vibe in this room.”

What’s exciting to both Muse and Kyle Dubas is that despite the success, there is a lot of room for growth.

“The cause for the greatest amount of optimism when it comes to the to the group so far... is that it hasn't always been pretty,” Pittsburgh’s President of Hockey Operations and GM said. “I think there's a lot on the tape and from every game that we continue to clean up, and Dan the coaching staff are on that. I think for me, that means there's a massive amount of room for us to continue to improve and get better.”