By rule, it’s a good idea not to place too much stock in any single instant of the preseason. NHL training camps are a series of many data points from testing to practice to games that it’s not a good idea to have the needle move too much for any one time the spotlight is the brightest – on TV in an exhibition against an incomplete opponent.

That disclaimer out of the way, there is of course some evaluation and stories developing that we can draw from tonight’s action when the Penguins kicked off the first game of their 2025-26 preseason schedule up in Quebec against the Montreal Canadiens.

Here was the lines and lineup for the Penguins:

The hosting Canadiens ice a pretty good lineup with a bevy of NHL forwards at the top of their lineup and new addition Noah Dobson playing on the back-end, as well as starting goalie Samuel Montembault. Home teams usually are a little stronger than the visitors on paper in willingness to bring a little extra for convenience and entertainment alike

The Pens and Habs traded some power plays, it was Pittsburgh who struck first. Harrison Brunicke, Valtteri Puustinen and Tristan Broz teamed up to make a flurry of quick passes in and through the slot that culminated with Puustinen feeding Broz who quickly snapped a shot past Samuel Montembeault.

Sam Poulin threw a hit and dropped the gloves with a spirited fight about halfway through the game, the Pens used that break to split the goaltending time with Sergei Murashov coming in to relieve Joel Blomqvist. Montreal also took the opportunity to substitute Jacob Fowler into their net in exchange for Montembeault.

The Pens got into penalty trouble in the third period, they battled to kill off some more 5v3 time and soon after the power play expired Montreal got their first goal. Murashov couldn’t sweep up a puck into his glove, got spun around and eventually ended flat on his back. Not much good comes from that and Owen Beck was able to lift a puck over the fallen goalie and into the net. 1-1 game.

Overtime was in the cards, seeing a mostly cautious 3v3v for the first half. It finally opened up, Ryan Shea setup Avery Hayes for a nice look on a 2-on-1 but Fowler made a nice save to keep the game alive. Murashov would answer that big save with one of his own, flashing the leg moving laterally to take a goal away from Ivan Demidov. Mike Matheson hit the outside of the post in the final seconds.

That allowed some shootout practice. Murashov got the better of his countryman Demidov again by poking the puck away from his attempt. Mantha couldn’t score in his home province. Laine fired off target and Tommy Novak couldn’t find the five-hole. Sean Farrell shot a puck that hit Murashov and still had enough English to flip over and into the net. Broz managed to extend the game even further with a nifty deke and fake to tuck a forehand five-hole shot in. Filip Mesar couldn’t deke past Murashov only to see Ben Kindel not be able to score on his backhand deke.

In Round 5, Oliver Kapanen solved Murashov with a nifty backhand deke, which ended up being the winning effort after Avery Hayes couldn’t score on the final chance.

Some other thoughts and stray observations:

Overall it would have to be considered a successful first night for the Pens. Win or loss can be flushed out the window compared to the more important items like seeing some good things from players like Broz, Brunicke, Blomqvist and Pickering all putting some nice tape together that should continue to build the cases they are making to earn some sort of role either at the beginning of the season, if not deeper into it in some of their situations. That’s about all you can ask for the first game, now it’s back to Pittsburgh to keep camp rolling along.