Mark Madden: How did the Penguins get off to such a torrid start?

Gavin who?

In just one month and 12 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ priorities have dramatically shifted. The goal is to build on their torrid 8-2-2 start and make the postseason for the first time since 2022, perhaps even win a playoff series for the first time since 2018.

If you’re going to dream, dream big.

Discarded is the notion of a top-five pick or the idea of winning the NHL draft lottery and getting Penn State phenom Gavin McKenna, the presumptive first choice. (That was never the goal in the dressing room. Dressing rooms don’t look out for the franchise’s greater good.)

How did this happen?

Because nobody saw this coming.

It’s cliched to credit captain Sidney Crosby but no less accurate.

Crosby has eight goals and seven assists in 12 games. But his impact goes far beyond stats. He’s an exemplary leader and has incredible cognizance of a team’s dynamic. Crosby reads the room, then improves it.

Crosby has doubtless been energized by kids like 18-year-old rookie Ben Kindel, with that energy ricocheting around the room.

If you’d like to get more tangible, Evgeni Malkin is just two points off the NHL scoring lead with three goals and 14 assists. He’s born again on that jumbo line of him, Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha.

Everybody is 6-foot-5. They’ve combined for 15 goals. Brazeau looks like a latter-day Warren Young.

Brazeau and Mantha keep it simple because they have to: Bang down low and go to the net. Malkin is thus forced to also keep it simple, and it’s made him better, not least through the neutral zone where he can be a liability.

Will it last?

It needs to. That jumbo line allows the other lines to better fall into place.

Also high up the list of surprises are Ryan Shea and Parker Wotherspoon, borderline NHL defensemen masquerading as top-four blue liners and doing a good job of it.

Like Brazeau and Mantha, Shea and Wotherspoon are keeping it simple.

Like Brazeau and Mantha, both are likely energized by getting a legit chance.

There’s that word again: Energy.

The staleness is gone, having accompanied departing coach Mike Sullivan to New York.

New boss Dan Muse seems excellent tactically and systematically. But his biggest qualification might be that he’s not Sullivan.

That’s no criticism of Sullivan. But 10 years is too long of a tenure for almost any coach.

More than anything, things are different with the Penguins. The Penguins needed a strong dose of different almost as bad as the Steelers do.

Full credit to president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas.

I didn’t even know who Wotherspoon was before I saw him in a Penguins jersey. Same with Brazeau. Dubas made some finds.

Defenseman Ryan Graves is with the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate, riding the bus and seeing out the last four years of a contract with an average annual value of $4.5 million. Conventional sports wisdom dictates justifying that expenditure by using Graves with the Penguins. Actual intelligence says that you’re paying the player regardless, so don’t shoehorn him into the lineup if he’s inferior.

Graves is inferior. Here’s hoping he likes riding the bus.

The goaltending is a bit of a surprise, especially Tristan Jarry, who spent time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season.

Jarry apparently didn’t like riding the bus because he’s back and playing decent.

If Arturs Silovs can win playing behind Latvia in international competition, he can win with the Penguins.

Jarry and Silovs have rarely been scintillating, but they don’t stink. In the current era of wonky goaltending, that’s all that’s required.

Erik Karlsson is less of a human hand grenade than during his prior two seasons with the Penguins. It’s probably because his knickers are in a twist after not being named among Sweden’s first six players for next year’s Olympics. But why ask why?

Kris Letang got off to a rocky start but is settling down. When Letang simplifies his game, his athleticism and conditioning allow him to be effective.

The X-factor is the kids: Kindel, defenseman Harrison Brunicke, winger Ville Koivunen and defenseman Owen Pickering.

Koivunen and Pickering have spent time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season. Brunicke has struggled lately and may be returned to Major Junior.

But it’s advisable to keep a lot of kids. They bring energy — that word again — and enthusiasm. It’s better if the dressing room belongs to them and the veteran stars, not the stars and clout-chasing veteran paycheck-stealers.

Can the Penguins keep it going?

Not sure.

They haven’t yet played many good teams.

But the Eastern Conference is mostly rotten.

The Penguins have already built a cushion that, barring total collapse, will keep them in the playoff hunt for months to come.

Loser points keep the standings clogged.

Teams that are in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving make the postseason 77.5% of the time.

The Penguins coming out hot is odd. It’s unexpected. It’s fun. Enjoy it.

Maybe even show up at home games.