PITTSBURGH — There’s snow on the ground. Christmas music is everywhere. The Olympic break is only two months away. And the NHL season is reaching the one-third mark this week.

We keep waiting for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ feel-good story to fall flat, for Father Time to catch Sidney Crosby and for a rebuilding team to look the part.

The Penguins were a little shaky in November, yes, but they’ve won three of their last four games and are back in a playoff spot. And they’re about to get healthy.

Eastern Conference wild-card standings

Are they for real?

Maybe.

Before the season, the Penguins were largely predicted to finish with one of the NHL’s five worst records. Their old guys were really old, their young guys weren’t ready to contribute, their blue line was a disaster, and they had a new, unproven head coach in Dan Muse.

Some trends are beginning to solidify into facts:

• We’re not seeing the 2023 or 2024 version of Tristan Jarry. We’re seeing former All-Star Tristan Jarry. I didn’t expect this. Nobody did. He’s the strangest goalie in Penguins history to figure: a spectacular physical talent whose mind and nerve can never truly be trusted. Right now, though, he is focused and rising to the occasion when games are on the line.

This changes the Penguins’ makeup quite a bit.

• Evgeni Malkin knows this could be his final season in Pittsburgh. That’s not my opinion. Malkin brings it up all the time, perhaps intentionally daring general manager Kyle Dubas to let him walk or perhaps simply being vulnerable about something that means a lot to him. One way or the other, Malkin is defiant and hungry for playoff hockey.

• Crosby has scored 18 goals in the season’s first 25 games. Only once in his NHL career — the 2016-17 season — has Crosby scored more goals in his first 25 games.

A cynic will say this isn’t sustainable or that the underlying numbers aren’t rosy. Well, I agree Crosby won’t continue his 59-goal pace. That would be ridiculous. But he’s special right now. Of course, he’s going to get old at some point because he’s human, but I wouldn’t bet on it happening this season. What will we see from him if he smells the playoffs in March?

Then, there are the injuries. The Penguins have been hamstrung over the past month. They’ve lost a key contributor from each of their four forward lines. Yet, they’ve survived.

Rickard Rakell had surgery on his left hand in late October with an announced recovery timeline of six to eight weeks. It’s been just over five weeks since then, so he’s likely to return sometime in December. When he does, expect the Penguins’ top line figures to take off. Crosby has done most of his scoring this season on the power play because the top line hasn’t been healthy. Rakell makes a big difference. He’ll be back soon.

The second line — the big-man unit of Malkin, Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau — hasn’t clicked since Brazeau was placed on injured reserve Nov. 5. The Penguins said Brazeau would miss at least four weeks, which would be Wednesday, so he could return soon. While there’s no guarantee he’ll keep performing at his level from October, and history says he won’t, his start was not fluky. His hands are legit. Size doesn’t lie. Sometimes, the right player finds the right team and the right linemates. When he returns, the second line, led by a determined Malkin, will be better.

Rutger McGroarty is finally healthy, too. The highly regarded prospect, acquired in a 2024 trade for prospect Brayden Yager, made his season debut in Philadelphia last night. Fellow rookie Ben Kindel needs linemates who can bury his beautiful feeds and join him in making life miserable for opposing forwards. Kindel can play defense; McGroarty is even better defensively. His presence might give the Penguins a legitimately good defensive line that can chip in offensively.

It’s easy to forget this part, but the Penguins’ fourth line was playing well when, of all people, Noel Acciari was making a difference. Then, he suffered an upper-body injury, and the Penguins announced Nov. 5 that he’d be out a minimum of three weeks. So, he’ll be back soon, too.

All four lines should receive a jolt in the coming days and weeks.

If you’re looking for more reasons the Penguins are where they are, look at their blue line. Fourth-year defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who signed as a free agent in the offseason after putting up seven points in 55 games for Boston last season, has changed everything. Through 25 games, he has 10 points and has been pretty close to flawless. He’s been the perfect partner for Erik Karlsson, who is as resurgent and defiant as Malkin.

Dubas could have traded Karlsson by now, but he hasn’t, and Karlsson and Wotherspoon are giving the Penguins a legitimate No. 1 defensive pairing.

Ryan Shea is playing the best hockey of his life. Kris Letang has been maddeningly inconsistent, but his legs —the foundation of his game — actually seem to be coming to life in recent games.

Heck, Ryan Graves is playing good hockey. Really. Call it a Christmas miracle, or call Dubas the GM of the year, or call Muse the coach of the year, or, maybe, just give a stick tap to the hockey gods for shedding some light on what was expected to be an excruciating season for Penguins fans.

This is the ultimate bonus of a season. Dubas is hoarding draft picks, his prospects are lighting it up all over North America and the future looks bright. The present wasn’t supposed to be bright, too, but here we are.

Look at it this way: The Penguins have made it through two months. If they can survive two more months, they’ll reach the Olympic break. And by the time the Games are over, it will be March.

If the Penguins make it to March, and they’re still in this kind of a position, I wouldn’t bet against them making the playoffs. March is when Crosby and Malkin’s muscle memory should kick in, and they’ll combine their powers one last time. No, the Penguins clearly aren’t Stanley Cup contenders. But a playoff appearance together — one final time, where it all started two decades ago — would be a proper sendoff for Malkin, perhaps, and among Crosby’s crowning achievements. He will enter the Hart Trophy conversation if this team reaches the playoffs. The Penguins just need to get to March first.

So far, so good.