The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2025-26 season opener offered the same result as the 2024-25 opener in one respect.

Mike Sullivan was not satisfied as his team was shut out.

The main difference was that Sullivan’s current employer, the New York Rangers, was on the losing end as the Penguins claimed a 3-0 road victory against their former coach Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Another difference? Tristan Jarry was not the Penguins’ starting goaltender in a season opener for the first time since 2019, when he served as the backup to Matt Murray. Somewhat surprisingly, rookie Arturs Silovs, acquired in an offseason trade with the Vancouver Canucks on July 13, made his Penguins debut and stopped 25 shots to earn his first career shutout.

“It felt great,” Silovs told reporters in New York via audio provided by the Penguins’ media relations department. “It felt great to be on a new team.”

Sullivan’s successor, Dan Muse, also recorded his first career win as a head coach in the NHL.

All of what happened on Tuesday offered a stark contrast to the Penguins’ opening contest of the prior season, a 6-0 home loss to the Rangers Oct. 9, 2024, at PPG Paints Arena.

Another newcomer to the Penguins, forward Justin Brazeau, accounted for the team’s first two goals of the season. The first came at 19 minutes, 28 seconds of the first period.

Off a draw in New York’s right circle, Rangers forward Vince Trocheck, a native of Upper St. Clair, won the faceoff but allowed Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin to scoot behind him to claim the puck. Shielding it from Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, Malkin took a hit and fell to the ice but was able to whip the puck to the top of the crease, where Brazeau settled it on his backhand. With goaltender Igor Shesterkin largely dead to rights, Brazeau moved the puck to his left and floated a backhander by Shesterkin’s blocker. Malkin had the lone assist.

Pittsburgh goal!

Scored by Justin Brazeau with 00:32 remaining in the 1st period.

Assisted by Evgeni Malkin.

New York: 0Pittsburgh: 1#PITvsNYR #NYR #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/LO7jq7sCSq

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 8, 2025

Brazeau’s second goal came at 17:48 of the third period on an empty net. Malkin and linemate Anthony Mantha tallied assists.

Empty net goal for Pittsburgh!

Scored by Justin Brazeau with 02:12 remaining in the 3rd period.

Assisted by Evgeni Malkin and Anthony Mantha.

New York: 0Pittsburgh: 2#PITvsNYR #NYR #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/wQ8jsF87cO

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 8, 2025

Brazeau (6-foot-6, 232 pounds) and Mantha (6-5, 240 pounds) — each of whom joined the Penguins as free-agent signings on July 1 — opened the contest as linemates with Malkin (6-5, 213 pounds) and have largely skated with him throughout training camp and the preseason.

The size of this line looks almost like the frontcourt of a mediocre Horizon League basketball team. But this collaboration was created for more than its dimensions.

“Both of those guys (Brazeau and Mantha), they can make plays,” Muse said Monday in Cranberry. “It’s not just big bodies. They’re both guys, I think can make plays in tight areas. They think the game well offensively. We’ll see where it goes as we get into the year.

“Three very large humans and hard to play against and hard to handle when they’re that big and they can make plays at the rate they can as well.”

The scoring was capped at 18:08 of the final frame when forward Blake Lizotte collected another empty-net goal off assists from defenseman Ryan Shea and forward Connor Dewar.

Empty net goal for Pittsburgh!

Scored by Blake Lizotte with 01:52 remaining in the 3rd period.

Assisted by Ryan Shea and Connor Dewar.

New York: 0Pittsburgh: 3#PITvsNYR #NYR #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/lRrtwy7e9S

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 8, 2025

“I thought we got contributions from everybody today,” Muse said. “That’s the really exciting part.”

Making their NHL debuts were Penguins rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke, 18, and forward Ben Kindel, 19.

It marked the first time the Penguins had two teenagers on the season-opening roster since defenseman Kris Letang, 19, and forward Jordan Staal, 18, debuted with the 2006-07 club.

Notes:

• Silovs’ shutout was the first of his career in regular season play. He recorded a shutout during the postseason as a member of the Canucks. In Game 6 of a first-round series against the Nashville Predators, Silovs made 28 saves in a 1-0 win.

• Silovs became the second goaltender in franchise history to record a shutout in his debut with the club. The first was Maxime Lagace, who made 29 saves in a 1-0 home win against the Buffalo Sabres, May 8, 2021.

• Silovs became the second goaltender to record a shutout in the season opener. Franchise icon Marc-Andre Fleury did it twice. He made 40 saves in a 4-0 home win against the Philadelphia Flyers, Oct. 5, 2006, then made 27 saves in a 3-0 home win against the New Jersey Devils, Oct. 3, 2013.

• Silovs became the fourth rookie goaltender to appear in a season-opening game for the Penguins. It has happened five times overall:

• Silovs became the 61st goaltender to record a regular season win for the franchise.

• The Penguins’ last shutout of the Rangers was a 1-0 home win, Feb. 26, 2022. Jarry made 27 saves in the victory.

• Muse became the first coach to win his Penguins debut since Herb Brooks. After replacing the fired Kevin Constantine, Brooks directed the Penguins to a 3-0 home win against the Washington Capitals, Dec. 9, 1999.

• The previous coach to not lose his Penguins debut was Rick Kehoe. After replacing the fired Ivan Hlinka, Kehoe guided the Penguins to a 3-3 home tie against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Oct. 19, 2002.

• Brazeau became the 648th player to score a regular season goal for the franchise.

• Brazeau became the 34th player to wear No. 16 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors (via PittsburghHockey.net):

Wayne Hicks, Ron Snell, Glen Sather, Sheldon Kannegieser, Ron Lalonde, Lew Morrison, Derek Sanderson, Kim Davis, Mike Meeker, Gary McAdam, Bennett Wolf, Marc Chorney, Mark Taylor, Jim McGeough, Kevin LaVallee, Charlie Simmer, Steve Gotaas, Jay Caufield, Mike Hudson, Joe Dziedzic, Eddie Olczyk, Jeff Serowik, Dennis Bonvie, Kris Beech, Erik Christensen, Paul Bissonnette, Chris Conner, Cal O’Reilly, Brandon Sutter, Eric Fehr, Josh Jooris, Jason Zucker, Matthew Phillips

• Defenseman Parker Wotherspoon became the 27th player to wear No. 28 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Ron Stackhouse, Harvey Bennett, Mario Faubert, Gene Carr, Tom Price, Jim Hamilton, Bob Simpson, Tim Hrynewich, Bruce Crowder, Robert Geale, Steve Gatzos, Dan Frawley, Gordie Roberts, Kjell Samuelsson, Greg Andrusak, Jeff Christian, Craig Muni, Dan Kesa, Michal Rozsival, Matt Hussey, Jani Rita, Nils Ekman, Adam Hall, Eric Godard, Ian Cole, Marcus Pettersson

• Silovs became the 14th player to wear No. 37 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Justin Duberman, Ladislav Karabin, Greg Andrusak, Kip Miller, Tom Kostopoulos, Mikael Samuelsson, Ryan VandenBussche, Jarkku Ruutu, Bill Thomas, Brian Strait, Jeff Zatkoff, Carter Rowney, Sam Lafferty

• Mantha became the 12th player to wear No. 39 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Mike Needham, Peter Allen, Joel Bouchard, Jon Sim, Chris Minard, Luca Caputi, Brad Thiessen, Harry Zolnierczyk, David Perron, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Alex Nedeljkovic

• Brunicke became the 11th player to wear No. 45 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Mike Needham, Glenn Mulvenna, Peter Ferraro, Martin Sonnenberg, Rob Scuderi, Arron Asham, Adam Payerl, Josh Archibald, Jonathan Gruden, Magnus Hellberg

• Kindel became the third player to wear No. 81 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Miroslav Satan, Phil Kessel

• Defenseman Caleb Jones became the second player to wear No. 82 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessor:

Martin Straka

-Brunicke became the second native of South Africa to play in an NHL game. Longtime Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig was the first.

• Defensemen Connor Clifton and Mathew Dumba as well as rookie forward Filip Hallander were healthy scratches for the Penguins.

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