{"id":297465,"date":"2026-10-01T06:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297465\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T06:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:58:07","slug":"penguins-showcase-balanced-offense-shut-out-flyers-in-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297465\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins showcase balanced offense, shut out Flyers in season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Vladar<\/a> made 31 saves for Philadelphia, which eliminated Pittsburgh in six games in the Eastern Conference First Round last season.<\/p>\n

“I think it was as ugly as it could have gotten,” Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Robertson made it 1-0 at 7:26 of the first period when he deflected Kris Letang<\/a>‘s pass down the right slot past Vladar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robertson scored his second at 11:52 of the third period to make it 6-0. His shot on a short-handed rush missed the net but caromed off the end boards and was kicked in by Vladar.<\/p>\n

The forward had been acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a fourth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft on July 1.<\/p>\n

“First game you’re kind of nervous, and it’s not preseason, you’re playing in a tough building on the road,” Robertson said. “Obviously, I was fortunate to get the one, and obviously that second one was kind of a gimme. I’ll take it. It was a good start for the guys. It’s good to feel comfortable.”<\/p>\n

Robertson played on a line with Crosby and Rickard Rakell<\/a>, and in the short time they’ve been together Robertson has already impressed.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s got great speed and just works every shift,” Crosby said. “He brings the same thing and he’s got a great shot, so yeah, I think it’s more his effort than anything.”<\/p>\n

Robertson wasn’t the only newcomer to impact the score sheet. It was also the first game for the Penguins for Lapierre and defensemen Kaedan Korczak<\/a> (two assists) and Declan Carlile<\/a> (one assist).<\/p>\n

“I think it just builds confidence,” Crosby said. “I don’t think it’s ever easy for guys to start with new teams, but I think having the benefit of (training) camp and just trying to get on the same page there. There’s a number of guys that are with us for their first game, so I think that helps. There’s other guys in the same situation, so hopefully we’re on the same page as much as we can.”<\/p>\n

Koivunen made it 2-0 at 15:44 of the first period. Samuel Girard<\/a>‘s pass in transition caught the Flyers on a line change, allowing Koivunen to skate in alone and score between Vladar’s pads.<\/p>\n

Malkin extended the lead to 3-0 at 5:03 of the second period with a power-play goal. He finished a give-and-go with Lapierre with a one-timer from the left circle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Vladar made 31 saves for Philadelphia, which eliminated Pittsburgh in six games in the Eastern Conference First…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-297465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}