'There's a blend there': Penguins' mix of youth and veterans showing instant success, not just symbolism

On Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, new Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse rolled out an opening night starting lineup of veterans Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, along with rookies Harrison Brunicke and Ben Kindel.

The symbolism wasn’t lost on anyone. The torch wasn’t ready to be passed, but the flame was at least ready to be lit.

On Thursday, that poetry manifested in practicality.

During the Penguins’ 4-3 home-opening win over the New York Islanders, Muse got two goals out of his power play. In the first period, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby worked together to set up Rickard Rakell for a goal to make it 1-0 Pittsburgh.

In the second period, Rakell and Malkin returned the favor to Crosby for a man-up goal of his own to make it 3-2.

Clear as day rakell tips it pic.twitter.com/trAsVhKGYR

— Tipster16 (@Tipster161) October 10, 2025

Sidney Crosby deflects Evgeni Malkin's pass for his first goal of the season ???? pic.twitter.com/VtPQhA5mpL

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 10, 2025

In between those efforts, 19-year-old Harrison Brunicke scored his first NHL goal after Filip Hallander set him up with point No. 1 of his NHL career. Tommy Novak got the secondary assist for his first point as a Penguin.

GRAB THAT PUCK ????️

Harrison Brunicke has his first NHL goal! #NHLFaceOff pic.twitter.com/7WA4Nt57Ic

— NHL (@NHL) October 10, 2025

That’s a lot of firsts. And, for those players, hopefully a lot more to come.

“Maybe split it in half? I dunno,” Brunicke said when asked if he or Hallander would get the puck.

After the game, Malkin spoke about the duality of the night as the 20-year vets were appearing on the same score sheet with a kid who isn’t even 20 years old.

“It’s always special when young kids score goals, their first points. It’s a big day for them,” Malkin said. “We try to help, and we try to show how tough this league is. We practice together. I hope we would help (in) practice. We play like a team.”

It’s an 82-game season. But at least through the first six periods of it, age and youth have been mixing together better than even Muse could’ve expected.

Let alone any of us on the outside of the locker room.

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“There’s a blend there,” Muse affirmed during his postgame press conference. “There’s guys that have been playing at this high, high level for so long. And then the young guys coming up — we gave guys opportunities. We didn’t all come into training camp with how this roster was going to play out. We let that happen on its own.”

Eh, maybe. Then again, the Pens didn’t need to keep Brunicke in the NHL. They could’ve sent him back to his junior team in Kamloops. They still may do that before Brunicke’s stay exceeds the maximum nine games that would require him to stay on the NHL roster all season. 

Same for Kindel.

But they wanted to keep them with the big club. They could. And they should.

At this time, those players can get the seasoning they need while having the luxury of making on-the-job training mistakes in a season that everyone on the outside assumes to be lost anyway.

“I don’t take any day for granted,” Brunicke said after the game. “If you’re to get better, learn from those guys and implement things they do on and off days into my game. I just like to keep getting better, keep going.”

That is all Penguins fans can ask for at this point too. Two games above .500 at any point this season was expected to be a long shot.

Even if we are just talking about the first two of 82.