PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins fought until the end and earned themselves an improbable point in what has been an improbable start to the season, ultimately falling to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 in a shootout at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.
They didn’t play well, however. It was, in fact, one of their worst efforts of the season.
“We hung in there and got a point,” Sidney Crosby said. “But we have to be better. We feel like we have another level.”
It can’t go unnoticed that the Penguins opted against playing their two impressive teenagers, Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke. This is all part of the plan, and it’s an understandable one. The Penguins, who are strongly considering keeping the 18-year-old Kindel and the 19-year-old Brunicke in the NHL all season, don’t want the youngsters playing 82 games. Call it load management. Call it protecting teenagers from the rigors of life in the NHL.
On some level, call it a problem, even if it’s a perfectly understandable one.
The Penguins are absolutely well within their rights to be protective of Kindel and Brunicke. It’s sensible. The future is more important than the present for the Penguins, no matter how exciting the start of their season has been.
Still, the Penguins are off to a wonderful start this season largely because of their teenagers. Their respective absences were noticeable against the Blue Jackets.
Connor Clifton, in the lineup for the second consecutive game for Brunicke, was again perhaps the Penguins’ least effective defenseman. He was on the ice for two goals against and, much like he did against Florida on Thursday, struggled pretty significantly.
Meanwhile, Tommy Novak took over third-line center duties from Kindel. Although he did finish with an assist, Novak has been generally ineffective this season, and certainly hasn’t played at the level that Kindel has produced in the early going.
Brunicke has been a healthy scratch for two consecutive games. It will be interesting to see what happens because of the injuries that are suddenly starting to mount.
Caleb Jones, who injured his foot in the third period against the Panthers, is out for the next six to eight weeks. Also, Rickard Rakell, one of the Penguins’ most important forwards, left early in the third period against Columbus and did not return.
The Penguins didn’t play a great opening period, but managed to take leads on goals from Ryan Shea and Anthony Mantha.
TOP SHELF SHEAZO 👀 pic.twitter.com/JMzxAcjn4Q
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 25, 2025
We’re thinking these new kicks could be a good luck charm 🍀 https://t.co/IwRqw7p4v1 pic.twitter.com/S8Uq0KazBL
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 25, 2025
Columbus, however, dominated the middle portion of the game, scoring three consecutive goals while badly outplaying and outshooting the Penguins.
“I love how we fought back,” Matt Dumba said. “But I wouldn’t say we were very sharp most of the night.”
Only a dramatic comeback allowed the Penguins to produce a point.
Bryan Rust comes through late for the @penguins to tie the game! 🐧 pic.twitter.com/L3h7lUGqvR
— NHL (@NHL) October 26, 2025
Kris Letang scored late on a power play with 5:06 remaining in the third period.
BIG first of the year for Kris Letang! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7tt5yxZrmH
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 26, 2025
Then, with goaltender Artūrs Šilovs pulled, Bryan Rust picked a perfect time to score his first goal of the season, one-timing a pretty feed from Evgeni Malkin past Elvis Merzļikins.
The Blue Jackets scored on all three shootout offerings against Šilovs.
Crosby and Rust scored for the Penguins, but Malkin was unable to beat Merzļikins, ending the game.
The game drew only 15,261 fans, not a particularly good crowd for a Saturday night game.
Ten postgame observations
• This was not a well-played hockey game, but it was not boring.
I thought it was one of the Penguins’ worst performances of the season from a decision-making standpoint, from a defensive standpoint and from an energy standpoint. They just didn’t have much juice and were hemmed into their zone much of the night. Frankly, we saw that transpire during the final two periods in Florida as well. They were simply more opportunistic in that game.
They showed some pretty serious guts in earning a point. In a sense, it’s a classic “good point” in that they didn’t really deserve a point in this game.
They didn’t play well, and it will be interesting to see how they rebound with five games in their next eight days.
• I totally understand what the Penguins are doing with Brunicke and Kindel. I’m not going to criticize it, either. It’s a long season, and they’ve got long careers ahead of them. From what I’ve heard, the Penguins have exhausted an enormous amount of research and thought into how many games those two should play this season and how they should be handled. Letting the process unfold makes sense.
The truth is becoming quite clear, however: The Penguins are a better team when those two are in the lineup. They’ll take their lumps. They won’t always be perfect. But they’re a couple of special-looking players.
They were missed on this night.
• I really haven’t liked Clifton’s game the past couple of games. He’s very physical, and there’s something to be said for that. But he’s made a number of bad decisions with the puck, has been out of position with regularity and just looks to be struggling quite a bit.
On the flip side, I liked Dumba’s game. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but I thought he was better than Clifton during training camp, and I still think he’s better. Dumba played on the left side with Jones out of the lineup.
I’d expect that we’ll see Brunicke back in the lineup against the St. Louis Blues on Monday, perhaps playing beside Dumba.
• Dumba wasn’t what I could call satisfied with his performance in his second game of the season, but he wasn’t unhappy. He said he planned on looking at some video Sunday to analyze how he played, but didn’t seem terribly upset.
“Felt good to get in a big hit and a fight,” he said.
That was a reference to what happened in the first period. He drilled Columbus captain Boone Jenner with a clean hit. Jenner responded by challenging him to a fight.
“No problem with that,” Dumba said. “I get it. They were down 1-0. He was trying to get them going. It’s hockey.”
Matt Dumba and Boone Jenner get into a heated scrap 👊 pic.twitter.com/Pbrk9LPTY6
— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) October 25, 2025
• He’s been great, so I’m not giving him a hard time by any stretch. But that’s the second night in a row that Justin Brazeau has been very quiet.
His level of play has dropped after his stunning surge during the first seven games. No big deal. He’s been wonderful. Let’s see how he responds from here.
• Šilovs was fine. He wasn’t great, but he was fine.
He was at his best in overtime, where he denied Columbus on a number of looks that would have ended the game. Šilovs did, however, look horrible in the shootout.
• There was no report given on Rakell’s health following the game.
Filip Hallander moved onto the top line in his absence. I like Hallander, but I don’t like him on the top line.
Were I running the show, I’d give Kindel a look on the top line alongside Crosby and Rust if Rakell is unable to go against the Blues.
Why not?
• The Penguins gave up 41 shots and simply played a poor game. They lost a lot of puck battles and were very poor in their zone. Maybe we saw some bad habits creep into their game. Maybe the rush from playing for a new coach is slowing a bit.
Or, maybe, just maybe, it was merely an off night. The truth is probably a combination of all three.
• This was a strange game. There were three different occasions when the puck trickled past Merzļikins, only to fail to cross the goal line by a couple of inches.
This might tell you that the Blue Jackets got lucky to win the game. In a sense, maybe they did. But I’d still suggest that the Penguins were severely outplayed.
• The evening started with the Penguins introducing their 2025 Hall of Fame class to the crowd in a pregame ceremony. What a wonderful moment.
Eddie Johnston, Scotty Bowman, Ron Francis and Kevin Stevens deserved the raucous welcome that they received. The Penguins always do ceremonies like this well.
Also, credit to the Penguins’ owners, the Fenway Sports Group. The Penguins have a beautiful Hall of Fame exhibit on the main concourse, and the ownership put a considerable amount of money into it. They didn’t have to, but they did. I think it’s very important that the Penguins recognize their history, because it really has been a remarkable history. Honoring the all-time greats is important, and the four people inducted are absolutely among the most important in franchise history.
They did it right on Saturday.