Even with a strong start, Penguins not satisfied

The stakes weren’t particularly high.

In fact, it’s dubious if stakes even existed.

After all, what is there to compete over during a short-area three-on-three drill during an optional practice?

Plenty, at least based on the reaction Bryan Rust offered Wednesday in Cranberry.

After mishandling a puck in the neutral zone, Rust bashed his stick off the glass with the same level of frustration one might offer upon missing the net on an overtime penalty shot in Game 7 of a conference final series.

But Rust and Co. aren’t content with what they’ve offered through all of seven games this regular season, even if they have a 5-2-0 record.

That mark could be somewhat surprising, considering many anticipated the club would largely not be competitive, at least as it pertains to contending for a championship.

But can much weight be put into only seven games?

“Not really, no,” defenseman Kris Letang said. “It’s a league that two weeks can change your entire season. It’s so tight that you have to be on all year if you want to get a chance to get into the playoffs and stuff like that. You can look at it from the (general manager’s) perspective, you could be a buyer or a seller within two weeks.

“You try to build. If it’s positive, you try to build on it. If it’s negative, you try to learn from it.”

To be certain, the Penguins are educated enough to realize they’re in the black by accumulating 10 of a possible 14 points, even if every game — wins included — hasn’t been perfect.

“I think we’re really happy about the points,” forward Rickard Rakell said. “Even the games that we lost. … We’re feeling good about the start.

“But I also feel like we can be even better. There’s still some things that we’re working on in system and the (defensive) zone that are new to us. Other than that, I feel like we’re happy about how this season has started for us.”

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Is there any surprise internally?

“I think with the personnel we have, we give ourselves a chance to win every single night,” Letang said. “We identify teams that are a contender or this and that. But at the end of the day, it’s played on the ice. You never know, it could go either way.”

What have the Penguins done well on the ice that stands out through this septet of games?

“We’re more accountable for position swaps,” Letang said. “What I mean is, let’s say a defenseman jumps into the rush, the forward has strict instructions of taking that spot and playing as a defenseman. It’s a little bit of the same for us (defensemen). If we are in the (defensive) zone and our forwards are getting caught battling low, we have to act like a center. We have to support those wings.

“That’s the biggest change I’ve seen all over the ice.”

There are obviously plenty of areas that could be spruced up, including their offensive attack, even if they’re 10th in the NHL with a potent 3.29 goals per game through Tuesday.

“How to find different areas on the ice we’re based out of our system now that we can generate,” Rakell said when asked for an aspect needing improvement. “Timing-wise and all of that, how we’re going to generate rushes through the neutral zone, coming into the offensive zone and finding our spots in (the opponent’s) zone.”

By just about any measure, the Penguins’ 2025-26 season has been a success. But it’s only seven games.

An audit of this outfit around Game 77 will offer a more valid assessment of who the Penguins really are, root and branch. But they aren’t gazing at anything other than their eighth game, a road contest against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

“So many things are going to happen through the season,” Rakell said. “You don’t want to think too far ahead. That’s never good for you.

“We’re just going to take it one game at a time. That’s easier.”