After suffering another blowout loss on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Penguins have a statistical twist eight games after a historic opener.
When the Penguins crushed the Philadelphia Flyers to open the 2026-27 season, they looked like one of the NHL’s more dangerous teams. Just under three weeks later, the Penguins have flipped the narrative.
They have won two games since that 7-0 win over Philadelphia, both of which came in overtime or a shootout. That means the Penguins haven’t won a game in regulation in those past eight contests.
What makes this stat even more bizarre is that Pittsburgh seems to be regressing. Over their past three games, opponents have outscored them 16-7. That’s an average of 2.33 goals scored vs. 5.33 goals allowed, and it’s not a good omen with the Utah Mammoth and Florida Panthers on the docket.
On Saturday night, the futility continued when the Penguins lost 6-2 to a strong Vegas Golden Knights team. Pittsburgh went down 3-0 before Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal. But they were unable to capitalize and found themselves down 5-1 heading into the third. Evgeni Malkin scored at 4:43 in the third frame, but that was as good as it got for Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Penguins Have Zero Regulation Wins Since Opener
Pittsburgh started its season 2-0-0, with its first overtime win coming vs. the Montreal Canadiens. In those two games, the Penguins outscored opponents 13-5, and it further looked like they were going to win often by putting up a lot of goals.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, they are 1-5-1 since then, with 16 goals scored and 28 goals against. That’s a meager 2.3 goals scored on average, vs. 4.0 goals allowed. It also makes that season-opening shutout win even more bizarre, given the way that the Penguins now look broken.
Pittsburgh’s most recent performances haven’t gone unnoticed. Head coach Dan Muse put it best. Via Michelle Crechiolo of the Penguins team site, Muse said:
“We can’t be feeling bad for ourselves. It’s on all of us, myself included. So, together as a group, we got to dig in. We have to find consistency in our game. There’s a lot coming off of tonight that we have to clean up from a structural standpoint, across the board, a number of things.”
The last part of Muse’s comment sums up the Penguins’ recent seven-game disaster. Right now, it seems like nothing is working in this team’s favor. But if there is one positive takeaway from Saturday, it’s that the Penguins converted their only power-play opportunity of the game. Erik Karlsson recently brought that issue to the forefront, and the Penguins followed through.
Penguins Won’t Have It Easy In Their Upcoming Games
On Monday, the Penguins will face a young, upstart Utah Mammoth team that is seventh in the league with 33 goals scored. As of Sunday, Utah is first in the Central and looking to continue working its way into becoming one of the NHL’s most relevant teams.
On Thursday, they host the Florida Panthers, who have done the unthinkable in their previous three games with three straight natural hat tricks. That said, it’s a challenge worth embracing for Pittsburgh.
If they want to prove they are a better team than they have looked since securing their only regulation win of the season and that the last eight games have just been a bizarre twist, there are hardly better teams to prove themselves against. We will see if the Penguins finally get it together on Monday.
Pittsburgh Penguins’ Historic Season Opener Looks More Bizarre By The Game