Expectations were low in October, but by the end of the season, hopes were high. The Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t chasing a Stanley Cup as much as they were the next win. The lack of big picture aspirations were in fact a feature, not a bug, as the team was able to shrug off steep drops in December and discard obstacles.
It seemed the lack of pressure greatly helped as the sometimes suffocating sense of frustration that exacerbated past iterations was not present. You can’t be crushed by losing something you never had. The head coach made sure to subtract, not add, frustration, too.
Instead, the Penguins found a coach who meant what he said last summer. In his first couple of press conferences and availabilities, coach Dan Muse said he believed in a collaborative effort. His inclusive coaching absolutely floored defenseman Kris Letang.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Letang Friday.
Dan Muse
Though, in fairness, the Penguins’ championship core has played for only four coaches, two of whom had brief tenures (Michel Therrien, Mike Johnston). And former coach Mike Sullivan was not exactly the open door, happy-to-be-questioned type.
Erik Karlsson absolutely loved playing for Muse, and it showed.
One thing you never saw in print or on TV, and it wasn’t necessarily meant for everyone to hear (or maybe it was), was Karlsson’s genuine praise for Muse as he taped sticks in the hallway one morning. As the media left the room after a morning skate, Karlsson chatted with a friend outside the room. Maybe it was in Buffalo? The blur of 2025-26 travel schedule sometimes made knowing the day of the week difficult. Part of what Karlsson was yelling across the hall is printable.
“…But that guy Muser, he’s the man.”
For the record, after Muse’s final press conference of the season, the traveling beat writers, including this writer, lingered to chat with the coach. It was an easy call–I thanked him for the respect and accessibility he showed to all of us.
Muse is an interesting guy. From what we hear, he can lay down the law inside the room, and he absolutely works harder than almost all, or absolutely all, of his contemporaries. If you look closely, he’s got a little bit of Mike Sullivan’s edge, Bruce Cassidy’s authenticity, and he was able to translate his junior hockey communication skills to the NHL.
It won’t be long before teams are looking for “their Dan Muse.”
Things teetered at mid-season, and things went wrong for long stretches this season. The one thing the head coach didn’t do was make it worse.
Friday, defenseman Ryan Shea repeated publicly what he told us months ago.
“His positivity is second to none. They allow you to make mistakes. They allow you to play your game,” said Shea. “It’s the NHL. You play 82 games, and probably 15 of them aren’t going to be great games. And (Muse), he’s not going to punish you, he’s going to put that positivity back into you and bring the best out of guys. And I think for me, it’s a huge thing.”
There’s a reason that Shea, Parker Wotherspoon, Justin Brazeau, Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, and Anthony Mantha had career years. Perhaps you could even include Arturs Silovs on the list, too. And the reason was the support and latitude afforded to them by the head coach.
Penguins Tidbits
Before the final blitz, in which the team played 19 games in 34 days with games on each end of the continent in all time zones, we had time to discuss things with the players. Sometimes, the conversations veered into unexpected territory.
Seriously, I cannot fathom how the players survived March and early April. Muscle memory and habit kept this writer going, but writers don’t skate a mile at full speed and take collisions at 30 mph every night. Perhaps I owe you an apology. I did not realize how tired and mentally drained I had become. My writing was bereft of creativity and often read like someone trudging toward the finish line rather than crafting a story for your enjoyment. Hopefully, you have noticed a difference in the past week or so.
The players–they wore it all with a smile, especially once they knew they had a playoff spot within reach.
This writer spent five minutes one day discussing offseason training and roller blades with Arturs Silovs. Bear in mind, I haven’t been on rollerblades since I was a kid, but I went with it. The players spend so much time on themselves and hockey and preparation that if they want to talk rollerblading, sure. Some also vent about past organizations, or dish dirt on other teams–which a few did.
Just like Frasier, I’m listening.
**Silovs has a goalie’s mentality. He’s serious. He’s a deep thinker and … just a little bit off the beaten path. Remember, just because I offer criticism of a player’s performance or a particular issue, it doesn’t mean I don’t like them.
As a goalie, he’s athletic, has good size, and has that sort of edge that successful goalies have. If goalie coaches Andy Chiodo and Jon Elkin can help him absorb more pucks instead of punting them around the ice as he has a tendency to do, he’s going to be a big-money goalie in the vein of Jordan Binnington.
After all, this was his rookie year. At 25 years old, he’s not yet into the prime for a goalie. His Game 6 performance was impressive and spoke well of his mental makeup. That performance followed spectacular international performances and previous playoff success. It’s now a pattern.
**Stuart Skinner was a breath of fresh air, perhaps the life of the party when he arrived. His gregarious nature was needed in a somewhat vanilla Penguins room. Late in the season, he could be seen in the press box taking Sergei Murashov under his wing; the pair engrossed in conversation and some laughter.
On the ice, the players lauded his “calm.”
Skinner went through hell in Edmonton. It was no one’s fault, but the situation became untenable for him and the team. When he arrived in Pittsburgh, there was no reason to dig into the negativity like a psychologist, but he made an immediate impact, personally, and the lack of that previous negativity allowed him to be … him to the Penguins’ benefit.
It spoke volumes that when the Penguins faced the Edmonton Oilers not long after the trade which brought Skinner and Brett Kulak to Pittsburgh for Tristan Jarry and Sam Poulin, Connor McDavid detoured toward the Penguins’ room and gave Skinner something close to a bear hug.
Skinner was one of a handful of players who didn’t speak to the media Friday, which was disappointing, but he probably didn’t want to answer six variations of the free agent question.
Make no mistake, the eye tests far exceeded Skinner’s numbers. If he signs with the right team this summer–a team with a defensive concept that doesn’t break down more than a 1988 Yugo–Skinner will be a reliable No. 1, much like his former Alberta counterpart Dan Vladar has become.
**Egor Chinakhov hung onto his red-striped CCM skates for as long as possible, but those are no longer made. He didn’t stock up on them, but just sort of shrugged.
“I guess I’ll need to get new ones for next season,” he said.
To his credit, Chinakhov never broke his rule to discuss Columbus. He was happy to move on, move forward, and the past was gone. But he cracked a wry smile once when reminded he was a fourth liner there.
**Contrast Chinakhov moving on to new skates with the tattered, horribly out-of-date, dingy, sweat stained athletic supporter hanging in Sidney Crosby’s dressing stall. Still photos are not allowed in the room, but goodness, if you haven’t caught a glimpse of that ratty thing hanging behind him in interviews, if it ever fell to the floor, the cleaning crew would probably throw it away without a second thought.
Interestingly, Crosby seems keenly aware that the end is nigh.
“I feel like I’m always evaluating that, even within the season. With a long season, being injured, that sort of thing, there were points where I felt like I played well. Other parts, I felt like I wanted to be better, but overall, I’m pretty happy with it,” Crosby said Friday. “I think it was really fun to be part of this group and to see how we played and the energy that we played with … As far as how long you want to play, I don’t know. I mean, it’s tough. It’s one of those things that it’s a year-to-year thing and how you feel. But I feel pretty good overall, and (I’m) happy with the season.”
The admiration teammates have for Crosby often reads like tripe or cliche, but it’s real and it’s deep. He’s a legend in plain sight.
*No player offered you more, without you knowing it, than Ryan Shea. He once tried to talk the NFL draft with me, and I blankly stared with occasional nods and questions. As I told him, c’mon, I’ve been chasing this team around two continents every day for six months. If I get an evening alone, I’m not doing deep dives into the New England Patriots.
I miss the days when I consumed sports like a voracious reader trying to earn a PHD.
Shea has a stealth hockey IQ. He doesn’t get credit for it, but unlike most players, he was able to articulate opposing schemes and the solutions to them. He’s keenly aware of the opponent’s best players and dangerous conflict points. Many times, the PHN postgame report card was a follow up examination to what he told us after the morning skate.
*Kevin Hayes. I don’t know what the future holds for him, but he relaxed with the media this season and let us get to know the guy that teammates love. My favorite story this season was writing about his childhood.
He’s quick with a wisecrack, a good chirp, and instantly lightens the mood in every room, but one morning, we veered into the best memories of childhood.
I didn’t make it a separate story because there were more pressing issues and we were in the midst of running from one city to the next, and it’s not the type of writing that I’m known for. The conversation began when I told him that one of the writers I hired for National Hockey Now was partly raised by Hayes’s mother at her Dorchester daycare. Within moments, Hayes and I were talking about his mom, being feral kids riding our bikes all over creation, and how we both lived life like kids should.
His mom and a couple of other stay-home moms in the tight-knit Irish Catholic neighborhood decided to get paid for what they were already doing and started their own daycare. It sounded like pure joy. You can read it here:
Small pictures of Hayes’s brother Jimmy, who passed away a few years ago, and of Johnny Gaudreau, who was tragically killed with his brother Matthew by an allegedly drunk driver in August 2024, remained taped inside his dressing stall at PPG Paints Arena.
Kevin, if you hang up the skates and you want to do a podcast, my wallet is open.
**Erik Karlsson is a good-natured and mischievous pot stir, blessed with an absolute indifference to what others think or say about him. With a quick smile or a little twinkle, he’d look at you just before unleashing a headline quote or some red meat info he knew you’d love.
After the Penguins survived an absolute beatdown in Tampa Bay on Dec. 4, but somehow won 5-4, he was in rare form.
“That was f*cking wild!” he yelled with that grin.
He was a treat to deal with all season, on the record and off. There isn’t a player who could entertain a dinner party quite like Karlsson. And he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the league, players, and what is going on. Karlsson also has a keen understanding of his station in the game without taking it too seriously.
When we discussed my Norris Trophy voting, I tongue-in-cheek apologized to him that I didn’t know where to put him on my ballot.
“You’d better have put me on it!” he said.
I almost didn’t put him on my ballot for two reasons: First, fear being called a homer, but also because–as I explained to him–I didn’t think he “gave a shit.”
“You’re right about that. I know who I am,” he deadpanned.
We then discussed the top defensemen around the league for five or 10 minutes, as he detailed each guy and their season, slapping my chest a half dozen times in the process. And I did indeed put Karlsson on my ballot, though not first, which he agreed. He also said unashamedly that if he’d played as well in the first half of the season as he did in the second (He had the best month by a Penguins defenseman in 35 years and led all NHL defensemen with 28 points in 21 games in January and February), maybe he could have won it.
He’s right about that, too.
**And Bryan Rust–the media good-guy award winner. At some point near mid-season, I made a point to talk to Rust on off days because it seemed we only talked after gut-punch losses.
Even the Penguins PR poked fun at Rust on Friday for ALWAYS being available. But he was invaluable this season because he stood there and faced the music for his team that wasn’t always playing well and invented new and exciting ways to lose games in December.
And lastly, thank you. Thanks for the pats on the back at 6 a.m. at whatever airport we were running through. Thank you for the unbelievable support this season. I’m not always the smoothest silk, and I beg your indulgences when sometimes I’m just a cantankerous twit or being aggressive with frustrating humans on social media (a personality flaw, I know, but it also makes me and some of you laugh so I’ll hold off on therapy).
I’ve saved up a bunch of photos, and I think I remember some stories from the road, too. We’ll get to those and some good travel recommendations shortly.
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