The Pittsburgh Penguins scored three of four points and never trailed in two games. A rookie goalie earned a shutout while another rookie goalie held a shutout for 58 minutes and 50 seconds.

The NHL Global Series was a paper success for the Penguins, but it has essentially created an early-season bye week who don’t play again until Saturday. Any momentum created by the resounding win on Sunday will be long gone.

Most teams don’t get a long break at the quarter mark of the season, but the offset will be a few days of practice.

The Penguins’ rough patch ended with a shutout, but with the exception of the 2-1 lifeless overtime loss to Nashville on Friday, the Penguins have played far more good periods than bad. Yet, including overtime and shootouts, they have won only two of seven games (2-3-2).

Despite the muddy results, the Penguins are in third place of the Metro Division, two points and one game in hand clear of the New York Rangers, who are the first team out of the playoffs.

That first period Sunday was an excise of some frustration. It wasn’t just about getting a trio of goals, but the near-perfect hockey they played getting there.

What We Learned in Sweden

1. Third Liners, Value, and Bad Mixes

A certain level of production and a high level of play is expected from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, eventually Rickard Rakell, and Erik Karlsson. That’s the base for the team.

Everything else is to some extent a variable.

Coach Dan Muse made his first mistake as head coach Friday when he grouped wingers Tommy Novak and Philip Tomasino beside center Kevin Hayes. The line was slow, soft, and predictably terrible. Only Hayes had a shot on goal.

However, Muse corrected it Sunday when he moved Hayes to Malkin’s line and rookie Ben Kindel back to the third line center spot. Kindel revitalized the line, and Hayes played a remarkably effective game with Malkin.

Novak has played increasingly well over the last two weeks. The spark that earned him a three-year contract with a $3.5 million average annual value has returned.

However, Tomasino remains too comfortable being invisible. Rutger McGroarty returned to play Saturday in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Sam Poulin is off to a strong start in WBS, and the team probably owes Tristan Broz an NHL debut much sooner than later.

One or more could get the call soon.

2. Lizotte Land

The Penguins’ fourth line has been good all season. In order to put Kindel back in the middle, Muse moved fourth-line scrapper Connor Dewar to the top line. That move didn’t pay dividends, but the mix-and-match fourth line with Lizotte was again solid.

Not only did those fourth-liners kill all four penalties against, but the fourth line with Joona Koppanen and Danton Heinen scored a goal, had a 71% scoring chance rate, and a 61% expected goals-for ratio.

Lizotte has been wildly underrated and unappreciated this season. No matter which wingers Muse has given him, Lizotte has been a tenacious, speedy bedrock for the lineup.

Also, he’s only 27.

3. Andy Chiodo, Goalies

The Penguins’ goalies have exceeded expectations by a wide margin. Arturs Silovs didn’t last 10 games last season with the Vancouver Canucks, but is showing a marked improvement this season, posting a .917 save percentage.

Tristan Jarry also flashed some of his best work before suffering a lower-body injury.

And Sergei Murashov looks really good.

The Peguins’ goaltending coaches probably deserve a bit of credit, starting with Andy Chiodo at the NHL level.

It’s also notable that Murashov isn’t playing great or making unbelievable saves. His play through two games has been entirely sustainable.

What happens in a couple of weeks when Jarry is healthy is the definition of a good problem.

4. Real Potential

There was a positive energy around the Penguins last week. Over the last couple of years, the negative has been easy enough to feel and see.

They emerged from a tough couple of weeks, and they’re playing well, despite several injuries, including to top-line winger Rakell and second-line winger Justin Brazeau.

Any team can crash out, but it really feels like the team is solid. They play hard most nights, and they play fast.

When Ryan Shea told us in Sweden that the defensemen feel like they have more of a leash to join the play, other comments came into focus, too. More of the team feels empowered to play, and they’re doing just that.

See also: Anthony Mantha, who has eight goals and 14 points in 19 games. Defensemen Parker Wotherspoon and Shea, too.

Perhaps general manager Kyle Dubas’s biggest accomplishment this season was shedding the top-heavy control in which it was the core veterans’ team, and the secondary players were there to fill roles. Those same types of players are now fighting to reach their best game, which is much bigger than the restrictive roles available to them in the past.

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