A 2-0 start…… Evgeni Malkin with five points in two games….. solid to very good goaltending…… forward depth shining and on top of that, Mario Lemieux making a rare appearance since the FSG feud and Lemieux also making it down to the locker room afterwards to a joyous Penguins group.

Like what is going on here?

The doom and gloom Penguins, picked to finish as bad as 30th overall in some circles, improved to 2-0-0 on the season with a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday Night. Thursday’s win and style of game was the complete opposite to the slow pace, slog it out defensive clinic season opener vs the Rangers.

The Penguins had a lack of cracks defensively in this one. Neutral zone play away from the puck and spacing was nowhere near what we saw in the opener where Pittsburgh bottled up the Rangers and made New York look old and slow. A big focus with the Penguins new staff is recovering ability on breakdowns. The Islanders pushed the pace and were able to get the Penguins defensively out of position. While Tristan Jarry wasn’t perfect, this was a big night for him in getting by-passed for the season opener. Jarry came up big late and stopped all 12 shots he faced in the third, including a flurry of saves late. When Maxim Shabanov tied the game at 3-3 late in the second, if felt like a classic Jarry game where even though he was playing well, this was going to be a game he finds a way to lose 5-4.

“I thought he played great,” head coach Dan Muse said of Jarry “You look at the end of the game, that’s a tight game. You look at the saves he made during the third period…….There’s some massive moments there in the third period that he came up with big saves and helped make sure that this team secured those two points.”

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Key Storylines

— We’re only through a couple weeks of training camp and two regular season games but Dan Muse might deserve a coach of the year vote right now in having the brains to know how to use Erik Karlsson properly compared to Mike Sullivan’s staff that even brought on David Quinn to fix Karlsson and still wanted to put the shackles on Karlsson. Muse has tapped into something even mentally some feel with Karlsson……..

— Filip Hallander might have been on the ice for two goals against 5 vs 5, but absolutely loved his game. Created puck pressure on Harrison Brunicke’s 1st career NHL goal and he played hard and fast, possessing strong forechecking sense in how he attacked puck carrier on their backhands. The strong night saw Hallander bumped up to Sidney Crosby’s line as the game progressed. One Penguins source said Hallander’s style reminds members of the organization of To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

— Bryan Rust has a really good shot to play to Saturday Night vs the Rangers, though, Dan Muse is said to be type that is very cautious with injuries early on. Who comes out if Rust is a go? You’re likely looking at Ville Koivunen or Tommy Novak.

— As great as a story it’s been, the Penguins brass remains strongly lean on rookie To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

— Though it doesn’t sound like the player was crazy thrilled about the idea, Rickard Rakell eventually getting a run as the third line center remains strongly in play once the roster gets fully healthy. Muse who saw something in Justin Brazeau playing a top-6 role, believes Rakell can carry a secondary line from the middle ice position. In fact, during internal discussions this summer, Muse is said to have viewed Rakell as potentially centering the clear second line. But, at the end of the day do you want to mess with a veteran winger who is a 35 goal scorer?

— One mystery with the lineup has been Connor Clifton working all camp as the DeFacto #5 defenseman on the To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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