The milestone caught Arturs Silovs off guard.
When informed the Pittsburgh Penguins are at the midway point of the regular season — 41 games in, 41 games to go — the rookie goaltender was surprised.
“It’s been 41 already?” Silovs remarked Tuesday in Cranberry.
The season has progressed at a steady and aggressive pace through the first three months for all 32 NHL teams. That’s largely because of the nature of the schedule, which is compacted by a nearly three-week break in February to accommodate the Olympics.
The Penguins have navigated that swift current in a mostly successful fashion, as evidenced by their 20-12-9 record and 49 points, figures that entrenched them in second place of the wild-card standings of the Eastern Conference entering Wednesday.
Though their compass largely has pointed them to true north, they have encountered plenty of smooth pathways as well as rugged terrain as they’ve navigated this season.
They surged out of the gates with an 8-2-2 mark but plateaued in November, going 4-5-3.
December looked promising with wins in their first two games of the month, but that was followed by a hideous eight-game losing streak (0-4-4). As they entered the new calendar year, they have pulled the nose up by winning six of their past seven (6-1-0), including an ongoing five-game winning streak.
Mixed into that body of work are typical conventions of an NHL season such as injuries, scoring slumps and surges, as well as personnel changes.
All in all, the Penguins like where they are halfway through the season. But not satisfied.
“We’ve definitely been through everything this year,” forward Rickard Rakell said. “We had some real good stretches, and we had some tough stretches where we lost three-goal games, stuff like that. We’ve definitely felt adversity and been through it all. Hopefully, we would learn from that and become better as a group. We just want to keep building on what we started here after the (holiday) break.”
Externally, there weren’t grand expectations for the Penguins, at least when it came to wins and losses. If anything, the primary expectation — or even hope from some fans or media — was that this outfit would largely lose enough to contend for the top overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
The incumbent members of this roster had other aspirations.
“Dragging this team that nobody thinks can make the playoffs into the playoffs,” forward Bryan Rust said when asked in September about his hopes for the season. “There’s a lot of guys in here who want to accomplish something.”
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On Wednesday, Rust was asked to audit his team’s accomplishments.
“We’ve done a lot of really good things in the first half of the season,” Rust said. “We’ve, obviously, had a stretch or two that we don’t like. But that’s the nature of the season. There’s going to be a roller coaster, ups and downs. We’ve got to know what makes us successful so when things go awry, we can maybe mitigate it to only a couple of games instead of 10. This group in here believes right now. That can go a long way. That builds confidence. That builds team camaraderie. Those two things can go a long way.”
The Penguins entered the season after an offseason full of changes. Long-time coach Mike Sullivan left in April and was replaced by Dan Muse by June. Additionally, several new players were added to the roster, ranging from veterans such as forward Anthony Mantha or defenseman Parker Wotherspoon to rookies such as forward Ben Kindel or Silovs.
For better or worse, the Penguins still have a new feel to them.
“Overall, the feeling right now is so different because … when you have a new coach, it brings a different energy, it brings a different mentality,” said defenseman Kris Letang, 20 seasons into his tenure with the club. “But it’s also a new start for everybody to show what you can do in different things, whether you’re a young guy, an older guy, a guy looking for a contract, whatever it is. So there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy.”
There is plenty of room for improvement. The Penguins have lost a lot of games in which they surrendered late leads and have had plenty of trouble in games that go beyond regulation, either in overtime or shootouts.
There are some glaring blemishes, to be sure. But the overall cosmetics of the Penguins’ season have been appealing.
“It’s some of the most fun hockey I’ve ever played in my life,” Wotherspoon said. “(The playoffs have) always been the goal. Once we get there, hopefully, we can chase the Stanley Cup. It’s tough to be really talking about that right now, but I think we’re in a good position to keep getting some wins over the next month.”
Have the Penguins met or exceeded any expectations they had entering the season?
“Start of the year, you just want to have a good camp,” forward Sidney Crosby said. “You have a new coaching staff (and) a lot of new players, you want to get on the same page. Make sure that we have a good start, and then you start building from there. But I don’t think you think about the halfway point. You just want to be competitive, and you want to find a way to get in the playoffs.
“We all know how difficult that is, especially this year with how tight things are. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it like this. You’re just trying to get better at every point of the year.”
Whatever expectations the Penguins may have, they have another 41 games to realize them.
“You just play one day at a time,” Silovs said. “At the end of the season, we’ll see how the things are growing. There’s probably a lot of expectations — or not a lot of expectations — on the internet and other platforms. Here, we know what’s going to happen.”
