'Youthful energy' helps Penguins usher in new era

NEW YORK -- They stood on their blue line together as John Brancy sang the national anthem, a vision of the Pittsburgh Penguins past, present and future on opening night.

There were the three almost graybeards, 38-year-olds Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, and 39-year-old Evgeni Malkin. They were starting their 20th season together, becoming the first trio of teammates in the history of North American pro sports to reach 20 seasons.

With them were 18-year-old Ben Kindel, who wasn't yet born when Crosby, Letang and Malkin played their first game together on Oct. 18, 2006, and 19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke, who was less than six months old when the trio's historic run started.

For a team that is trying to slowly usher in a new era while keeping the old one going for as long as possible, the Penguins' starting lineup against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday was basically a metaphor for what this season and this team is all about.

And if the Penguins can consistently play like they did in a 3-0 win, this season, this blending of eras, might yield some better-than-expected results, although it is way too soon to predict that.

"It's pretty amazing when you think about it, to have that wide of an age gap," Crosby said. "Excited for them to get that opportunity to play their first game at MSG, a pretty historic building. To get the win and obviously to be sharing 20 years with 'Geno' and 'Tanger' and having played this long together, it's so rare. Probably a lot of different thoughts standing on that blue line but just grateful that we can be in this situation and we're still competing and still doing it."

It's one night, one game, and that certainly doesn't define the Penguins and what their season will be like. There are 81 games to go and harder days are ahead. But what happened Tuesday was a continuation of a positive training camp, of finding chemistry between players of different generations.

Kindel, the No. 11 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, and Brunicke, the No. 44 pick in the 2024 draft, did not look out of place as NHLers.

Brunicke played 15:21, had two blocks and a shot on goal.

Kindel played 15:11, had a shot on goal and won four of five face-offs. He nearly had a Grade-A scoring chance off a 2-on-1 with Anthony Mantha.

"There's always something to be said for having some of that youthful energy," Crosby said. "I remember being one of the younger guys and trying to provide it and these guys have been doing it since they got here. It's definitely a real thing and I think that could certainly help us."

Malkin created the play off a face-off that led to Justin Brazeau giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 19:28 of the first period. He lost the face-off to Vincent Trocheck perhaps on purpose so he can push forward, turn and shield the puck with his body and find Brazeau open in front of the net.

He also had an assist on Brazeau's empty-net goal that made it 2-0 at 17:48 of the third period.

Letang was a plus-3 in 22:47 of ice time.

Crosby was his typical self, controlling the puck, winning battles low in the zone, creating.

It was all backed by Arturs Silovs, Pittsburgh's 24-year-old goalie who got the surprise start ahead of veteran Tristan Jarry. He was perfect on 25 shots, square to the puck, controlling rebounds, quieting the game down in front of him.

"We've just got to keep getting better," Crosby said. "The more we play games, hopefully the more that we can elevate. But for the first game I thought we did a really good job of just focusing on the details, and when there were breakdowns, we tried to help each other out and got some big saves when we did."

There was more, though. For the Penguins, this all happened against their former coach.

Mike Sullivan spent the past 10 years in Pittsburgh, guiding the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017. He's now coaching the Rangers and clearly has his hands full with his new team as they try to figure out new systems and build new chemistry.

But it's Dan Muse, ironically a Rangers assistant the past two seasons, who is now behind the Penguins bench. He was making his NHL head coaching debut Tuesday. He's 43 years old, the second-youngest coach in the League.

Muse's job isn't easy. He's asked to craftily fuse the old with the new in Pittsburgh to keep the Penguins relevant for as long as possible so belief can become palpable in a season when so many have predicted them to finish seventh or eighth in the Metropolitan Division.

That's why he chose the starting lineup he did Tuesday, rewarding Crosby, Malkin and Letang for making history and making sure Kindel and Brunicke didn't have to wait for their NHL dreams to become reality.

It created this vision for what the Penguins are trying to do and for what they want to have happen this season. Then they went out and created the blueprint for how they'll have to win.

It won't be pretty, but with old and new joining forces, it may not be so painful after all.

"They were ready to show up in Game 1," Muse said. "For the first game of the season I just like the fact that you walk out of there, we get the job done, but you can look around the locker room and really feel like to a man everybody did something to contribute tonight. If we're going to start that way and that's going to be the base that we're going to build off of…I'm excited about building with these guys."