Penguins' penalty killers have been strong so far this season

Sidney Crosby imparted some veteran wisdom to teammate Drew O’Connor.

“Hey, ‘No comment!’ ” was suggested as a response by the Penguins’ captain after a reporter asked O’Connor about the team’s penalty killers.

“I’m not going to give away our secrets,” O’Connor quipped as Crosby chuckled.

Regardless of how covert of an operation the team’s penalty kill is, it has been abundantly clear that this special teams unit has been one of the Penguins’ most reliable strengths through a largely inconsistent first month of the season.

Entering Monday, the Penguins were sixth in the NHL on the penalty kill with a conversion rate 86.5%. They have allowed only one opposing power play goal on 20 opportunities over the past seven games.

What’s working?

“It’s just our aggression,” O’Connor said. “We play in teams’ faces. Try to not let them get any space any time. It can be frustrating for power plays when that’s the case. We’ve just done a really good job of being aggressive.”

Most of that aggression has been applied by their eight most regular penalty killers: forwards Noel Acciari (2:40 of short-handed ice time per contest), O’Connor (2:14), Lars Eller (2:04) and Cody Glass and (2:01) as well as defensemen Marcus Pettersson (2:46), Kris Letang (2:15), Jack St. Ivany (2:10) and Ryan Graves (1:47).

With the exception of Glass, acquired in August via a trade, the bulk of that group skated on a penalty-killing unit that finished 10th in the NHL at 80.7% in 2023-24.

That continuity — which includes assistant coach Mike Vellucci — has carried over to 2024-25.

“Me and Lars (penalty killed) most of the year together last year, and we’ve had that same continuity this year,” O’Connor said. “It helps when you have the same kind of system and you can learn it year over year and just continue to get better at it. The new guys have done really well adjusting to it well and helping us out.”

Glass isn’t just new to the Penguins’ penalty kill. He’s somewhat new to penalty killing, at least at the NHL level.

As a member of the Nashville Predators last season, Glass totaled 3:04 of short-handed ice time in 41 games, equating to an average of 4 seconds per contest.

“He’s a pretty smart player,” Eller said of Glass. “He’s growing into it, getting more and more minutes. He’s going to help us going forward. And we need him to be good if we want to get somewhere.”

Whatever terminus the Penguins’ penalty kill will arrive at, it will require cohesion.

“A (penalty kill) is all about your cohesiveness and how well you work together,” Graves said. “It’s usually five of their most skilled players. They can make plays through you, and they will get you on the run if you’re not working together. You have to stay together and find a way to get the puck under pressure. Try to make them bobble it, make bad decisions and try to get clears. I think we’ve been doing a good job of that.”

Ideally, applying pressure leads to chaos for the opposition.

“You kind of have to contain them as best you can and try and pressure every chance that you get and try to make it uncomfortable,” Glass said. “As a power-play guy, the hardest thing is having pressure on you and trying to make a pass out of it. If you make them as uncomfortable as possible, it will help a lot.”

The secret to success for this squad doesn’t seem all that complicated.

“We’re winning our puck battles,” Eller said. “We’re first on a lot of the loose pucks. Everybody knows what each other is doing out there. We’re a good four-man unit that’s in sync. And our (goalies are) playing well.”

Note: Per coach Mike Sullivan, injured Penguins forwards Matt Nieto (left knee) and Bryan Rust (undisclosed) will travel with the team for it’s upcoming three-game road trip. Nieto is designated to long-term injured reserve, and Rust is on regular injured reserve.