{"id":556370,"date":"2026-04-19T23:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556370\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:36:21","slug":"youre-not-going-to-back-down-penguins-kindel-unfazed-by-playoff-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556370\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You\u2019re not going to back down\u2019: Penguins’ Kindel unfazed by playoff chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Penn. \u2014 In the days leading up to this first-round bout, Sidney Crosby<\/a> had tried to put it into words. The mercurial, indescribable feeling that comes with first stepping into the chaos of playoff hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to prepare as best you can, but until you\u2019ve actually experienced it, there\u2019s only so much you can do to try to prepare,\u201d the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> captain had said. \u201cAnybody who\u2019s played in the playoffs, you remember that first game, that\u2019s for sure. You remember that first shift, that first period\u00a0\u2014 those tend to stick out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid all the weathered experience and trophy-laden resum\u00e9s housed in the Penguins\u2019 locker room, for one member of the squad in particular, it\u2019s felt especially novel.<\/p>\n

Rookie Ben Kindel<\/a> wasn\u2019t even alive the first time Crosby played in a playoff game. The young Penguin was in fact born on the same day his captain was eliminated\u00a0from his first post-season series \u2014\u00a019 years ago today \u2014 a Game 5 loss to Ottawa in April 2007.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the teenager got his first taste of the chaos himself, as the Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> waded through a hard-fought Game 1 to open their first-round series. He got his first experience of the frenzy around the playoffs, too \u2014\u00a0the raucous crowd filling the PPG Paints Arena stands, the 18,000 golden towels waving in unison, the larger-than-life cut-outs of his own face plastered against the glass as he skated out for warmups.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great experience,\u201d the birthday boy said Sunday, fresh off a skate at the Penguins\u2019 practice facility. \u201cI mean, it was very intense. Very fun to play in that game. The crowd was great, brought a lot of energy to the building. Just looking forward to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a series so steeped in history, so deeply intertwined with the decades-long rivalry between these two cities and their fanbases, Game 1 was all about the fresh-faced newcomers. On the other side of the sheet, Philadelphia\u2019s own teenage phenom, Porter Martone, wound up the story of the night, the 19-year-old wiring home the eventual game-winner in the dying minutes.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of Martone\u2019s immediate impact on the Flyers since joining their group three weeks ago \u2014\u00a0the Peterborough, Ont., product put up four goals and 10 points in his first nine NHL games to close out the regular season, before coming up with Saturday\u2019s heroics. And while the Penguins\u2019 own teenager impacts the game in a quieter, more nuanced fashion, Kindel has been no less critical to his club\u2019s efforts this season.<\/p>\n

Originally not expected to crack the big club at all this year after being tabbed with the 11th-overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Kindel has been a revelation for the Penguins since Day 1 in Pittsburgh. The Coquitlam, B.C., native didn\u2019t necessarily tear up the score sheet in Year 1 as an NHLer, but what he did accomplish in a Penguins sweater was no less impressive, establishing himself as a reliable, everyday centreman in the big leagues and allowing the Penguins to roll out a dangerous third line that played a key role in booking this team\u2019s playoff ticket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday night came the next step, the next test, as the Penguins battled through an exceptionally physical opening bout against the Flyers. The five-foot-11, 182-pound Kindel didn\u2019t back down from any of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s a physical game. That\u2019s just how it\u2019s going to be in the playoffs,\u201d he said from the Penguins’ locker room Sunday. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be physical yourself. And I don\u2019t think our team, or myself personally, shied away from that. I think we were on the attack all night as well. So we\u2019ve just got to continue to do that. It\u2019s a long series. We\u2019re going to wear them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was any question of whether the youngster would be able to cut it in the grind of the post-season, Kindel put those doubts to bed early in Game 1, roughing it up with Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a> \u2014\u00a0who clocks in at six-foot-four, 208 pounds \u2014\u00a0in the opening minutes of the tilt, after the Flyers defender took down Kindel\u2019s teammate Elmer Soderblom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, when it comes to the stuff that happens in between whistles, the physicality part, he\u2019s done a pretty good job this year,\u201d Penguins head coach Dan Muse said Sunday. \u201cOne, protecting himself, but also being engaged in battles. I mean, he\u2019s going to back up a teammate when the time is necessary. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to shy away from that stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a full season in the NHL now under his belt, too. I think he\u2019s starting to figure those things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kindel, it wasn\u2019t only about defending Soderblom \u2014 who\u2019s got four inches and 40 pounds on Ristolainen, and likely would\u2019ve been just fine \u2014 it was about sending a message to Pittsburgh\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter your size, or the size difference \u2014 I think no matter what, you\u2019ve just got to play bigger than you are, and engage physically, and not back down,\u201d Kindel said. \u201cI think that\u2019s important. To show that you\u2019re strong, show the other team that you\u2019re not going to back down. It\u2019s a mental game as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pittsburgh, part of that mental game is the question of how much to engage with that physicality against a Flyers team that did well in goading the Penguins into a scrappy Game 1 \u2014\u00a0a style that benefited the visitors more than the hosts. Then there are the other wrinkles to iron out: how to quell a Flyers team that used its elite transition game to stack breakaways on Stuart Skinner, how to get the Pens\u2019\u00a0usually elite power play humming once more, how to generate more offensively in general.<\/p>\n

It could be an overwhelming slate for a teenager to keep at the top of his mind heading into Game 2. But Kindel has the advantage of playing alongside some of the game\u2019s most seasoned vets \u2014\u00a0playoff regulars and Stanley Cup champions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kris Letang<\/a> has played in nearly 30 Game 1\u2019s over the course of his two decades in Pittsburgh, some won, some lost. Regardless, every time, the approach heading into Game 2 has been the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the playoffs. You have to be able to turn the page quick,\u201d the veteran defender said Sunday. \u201cYou forget about Game 1. It\u2019s just one game. You have to focus on the aspects you didn\u2019t do well, and build your game from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his view, that means ramping things up come Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just to go quick,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we slowed the pace down a little bit in the neutral zone. As defencemen, we can get the red line quicker, transition quicker. \u2026 We just have to focus on what we do well. And what worked all year long for us. Which is having a great forecheck, playing with a lot of speed. I think we have to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Muse, who himself is navigating his first playoff series as an NHL head coach, that even-keeled approach from his veterans has been crucial. So has his group\u2019s short memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotions of the playoffs are different, but at the same time, I think throughout the course of the regular season, we moved from one day to the next fairly well. Actually, we did it very well \u2014 and we kept getting better at it as the year went on,\u201d Muse said Sunday. \u201cI think in the playoffs, it becomes especially important that you\u2019re ready to turn the page quickly. And that can be coming off a game that you really like, or that can be coming off a game that you don\u2019t like, like last night.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that\u2019s what we had to do. Guys came in, they came ready to work, they had good energy. I thought we got something out of our day today. Now, we move on to tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Penn. \u2014 In the days leading up to this first-round bout, Sidney Crosby had tried to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-556370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-penguins","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","13":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434002490043114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}