Penguins/Avalanche Recap: Pittsburgh’s quick start no match for MacKinnon, Pens lose 5-2

Pregame

Egor Chinakhov apparently got injured in Thursday’s practice and doesn’t take warmups. His loss is Ville Koivunen’s gain to slot back into the lineup in a nice spot. Elmer Soderblom gets back in the mix too and Arturs Silovs starts for the Penguins.

The Colorado Avalanche are hosting the Pens with this lineup.

First period

The Pens start the game strong, controlling the shots early and looking very good. They turn that into a goal, Koivunen makes a cheeky little pass to Evgeni Malkin and then the old boy shows off his tricks, cutting into the middle of the ice and throwing a shot that beats Mackenzie Blackwood. 1-0 Pens.

Just 29 seconds later, Pittsburgh strikes again on the rush. Sidney Crosby has the puck on what looks to be a developing 2-on-1. Josh Manson stumbles in his transition to essentially make it a 2-on-0. You already know what happens next, Crosby puts a lot of mustard on a pass that Bryan Rust only needs to lift over the pad of the goalie moving laterally. 2-0.

The Avalanche respond, Nathan MacKinnon drives down the ice and matches his buddy Crosby with a great cross-ice pass for Arturri Lehkonen to score on. 2-1.

The Penguins get a power play, let’s just not talk about it.

Shots are 14-5 Pens, one of their best periods since the season opener.

Second period

Colorado scores early in the period. MacKinnon shoots hard, the puck hits Silovs and goes skyward. When it comes down, Lehkonen gloves it down from in close and smacks a backhand along the ice before any Penguin can quite catch up. 2-2 game.

Erik Karlsson hooks the Nate Dogg and it’s a penalty shot for MacKinnon as a result. Silovs stares him down and makes the save to keep the game tied.

That nice play aside, Colorado stays on the gas. Silovs finally crumbles a little giving up a big rebound on a shot. The puck goes to Brock Nelson and he makes a pass over to the backdoor for Gabriel Landeskog to guide it home. 3-2 Colorado takes their first lead of the night.

The Pens get another power play, it goes so well Ben Kindel slashes Nelson (after he shoots on the rush, even) and takes a penalty himself. Colorado’s short power play ends just as MacKinnon nabs his third point of the night when he centers a puck for TJ Hughes in front of the net. 4-2.

That period was a dose of reality for the Pens. Colorado woke up.

Third period

Quiet first-half of the third, Pittsburgh gets a third power play of the night.

Tommy Novak takes a penalty later on, the Pens almost hold until MacKinnon blasts one from the left side for his fourth point of the night. 5-2.

Pittsburgh pulls the goalie, because hey why not? Kris Letang takes a penalty late. Pittsburgh kills it off but the clock expires soon after to leave Colorado with a comforable win.

Some thoughts

• Rough last 40 minutes but it does the heart good to see Malkin cut to the middle with authority and score. He did that when he was 20 years old, and when he was 30 and now when he did it at 40. Naturally, age effects mean it’s become a rarity to see such flashes of brilliance these days, but hey – there’s not many skilled and bold enough to pull that move off at any age. Always awesome to witness a great player remind why he was, and still can be, in fact be great.
• Another feel good moment was Crosby on the Rust goal. You see Sid coming down the left side, a right-handed player in Rust bearing down on the right. It instantly screamed pass and goal, even before it happened. Then, of course, it happened just like you knew it would from 21 seasons of watching Crosby do exactly that. Happening the shift after the Malkin goal made it all the more special.
• Not just from the goal but tonight was definitely the first full game of the season where Sidney Crosby looked like *Sidney Crosby*, if you know what I mean. The passes were on point, the jump was there, he held onto pucks in the o-zone, he was going low-to-high. Maybe it just took a little while to get going (as the two goals from last game would suggest getting it into gear), maybe it was the energy boost of turning it up to show out and keep up with his buddy Nate. Either way, my goodness what a night from the captain. Could have easily had three or four assists with the chances he created for teammates.
• You think Koivunen was ready to make the most of his chance? Can’t underestimate the hunger, he knew he was on track to be a healthy scratch tonight, only playing because Chinakhov ended up injured, leaving Koivunen to take a spot on a prime line. That type of golden opportunity only comes around once every so often. Koivunen responded with perhaps his best game of the season. He did what he does best, making a skilled, subtle yet crucial play for Malkin’s goal. He then hit the post driving to the net in the first period and very nearly scored. Drew a penalty in the third. If he wasn’t hungry to make the most of this somewhat impromptu chance that would be a problem, good on him for stepping up when opportunity knocked.
• Pretty surprised to see MacKinnon get awarded a penalty shot in the second period, judging from his reaction Dan Muse was too. MacKinnon didn’t get the puck until he was at the top of the circles, it wasn’t much of a ‘breakaway’ opportunity, especially as fast as he moves.
• Immediately after Colorado took a 3-2 lead, Crosby made a beautiful pass to send Rickard Rakell in alone on the breakaway. Rakell made a move to the backhand but couldn’t finish. Setting aside Rakell has no goals on the season which adds to bigger frustrations, that’s the type of play a team simply has to score on to go punch-for-punch with an elite team like the Avs. They started hitting the Pens, you just have to hit back and keep up. That proved to be the problem of the night.
• Another big problem: the Pens’ power play is down to 0-for-19 in the last six games. Whether it’s a change in personnel, mindset, design, tactics, you name it and something has to change. A lot of things even because it’s downright bad right now.
• Speaking of that, and not to pile on Rakell- but why in the world is he still on the first power play group and Rust is not? Not to say that would solve all of that group’s issues (they have many more!) but it seems like a very easy first step.
• Tonight was Colorado’s third game in four days. It showed early on, they looked slow in the first period, sleepy and not terribly engaged. When they went down 2-0, it was like they realized they needed to wake up and play. Boy, did they ever to score five unanswered goals at that point and leave the Pens in the dust. Led, as always, by MacKinnon and his goal and three primary assists to fuel the majority of it. Turned out the Pens had no answers and couldn’t keep up. That’s a tough pill to swallow in some regards but just where both teams are on the food chain in 2026.

In a lot of ways, I don’t think the Penguins played that poorly tonight, especially compared to some of their other losses this season where they barely looked competent. That wasn’t the case today. Now, it’s certainly true that Pittsburgh was the second best team on the ice and the end result was justified but that says more about Colorado being really good. The result is the result, so no one is or should going to take a lot of solace from that, but sometimes you run into a better foe. Quick turnaround to a pretty formidable opponent on deck with the Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow.