5 Moments That Defined the Penguins’ Season – The Hockey Writers – Pittsburgh Penguins

As is the case for most teams in professional sports, the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ 2025-26 season was filled with its fair share of ups and downs. Starting the year as a team not expected to do much, the Penguins —while battling injuries throughout the lineup almost from Day 1 — refused to crumble in the face of adversity, a trait that defined the team for the entire season as it fought to rewrite its narrative.

Despite falling victim to some frustrating losses both on home ice and on the road, Pittsburgh managed to pull off enough statement wins to make up for them down the stretch, which turned out to be enough to qualify for the playoffs. While Pittsburgh’s postseason run was brief, it’s hard to say it completely wiped out all the progress the team made this season toward being a true contender again.

Here are five key moments that shaped Pittsburgh’s surprising campaign.

A Monumental Victory in Chicago

To put it simply, the month of December was a nightmare for the Penguins.

After kicking off the month with road wins in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, the Penguins seemed like they were primed for a rebound after enduring a subpar stretch of hockey in November. But the victories were only fool’s gold. Instead, things only went from bad to worse for Pittsburgh.

Over 17 days, the Penguins struggled through one of their most painful stretches of hockey in recent memory. From Dec. 7-23, Pittsburgh posted a putrid 1-5-4 record, which ultimately made its climb into the postseason later in the season much steeper. But it wasn’t just that the Penguins lost; it was how they lost some of those games that made the stretch truly frustrating.

Every time it felt like the Penguins held a comfortable lead, it was only a matter of time before it vanished. Following a blown 2-1 lead in Dallas that led to an overtime loss on Dec. 7, Pittsburgh saw the Anaheim Ducks force it into overtime again by knotting the game with 0.1 seconds left in regulation. The Ducks went on to steal the extra point, but the worst was yet to come.

In back-to-back home contests against the San Jose Sharks and Utah Mammoth, the Penguins carried multi-goal leads — 5-1 and 3-0, respectively — into the third period and still wound up losing both games. The holiday break couldn’t have come faster for Pittsburgh.

Back in action on Dec. 28, the Penguins’ schedule gave them a solid opportunity to begin righting the ship with a matchup against one of the league’s bottom feeders, the Chicago Blackhawks. While the United Center has historically been a tough place to play for Pittsburgh, it got the job done. Behind Justin Brazeau’s first career hat trick and multi-point performances from Bryan Rust, Anthony Mantha, and Ryan Shea, the Penguins racked up seven goals and never came close to choking the lead away in a 7-3 triumph.

While beating a team built like the Blackhawks wasn’t an earth-shattering accomplishment, the positive step helped pave the way for the team’s much stronger play in January.

Sidney Crosby Injured During Olympics

The Penguins, like all NHL squads, were well aware of the risk they took on when they sent four of their top players — Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, Erik Karlsson, and Arturs Silovs — to compete at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

With each team bringing a playoff-like mentality on the international stage in hopes of securing gold for their respective country, injuries are very possible. The poster child of this risk turned out to be Los Angeles Kings forward Kevin Fiala, who sustained a season-ending injury while competing for Team Switzerland.

Though not nearly as serious, the Penguins were forced to deal with a similar situation when Crosby suffered a lower-body injury late in the tournament. After absorbing an aggressive hit from Team Czechia’s Radko Gudas, Crosby quickly left the game and didn’t return for the remainder of the tournament. The Penguins’ captain was a game-time decision for the gold medal game against Team USA, but ended up sitting out as he watched his team fall in heartbreaking fashion.

Crosby missed 11 games for the Penguins before finally returning on March 18 for a road game against the Carolina Hurricanes, where he put up a goal and an assist. In his absence, the Penguins stayed afloat with a 5-3-3 record, but it’s fair to wonder how much that mark could’ve changed had Crosby avoided the injury altogether.

Pens Blow Out Islanders in Pivotal Divisional Matchup

With April just around the corner and the Penguins separated by just one point from the New York Islanders, the two sides’ final clash of the regular season on Long Island on March 30 was as important as they come for both teams.

A win for New York would’ve placed them three points ahead of Pittsburgh for second in the Metropolitan Division. A win for the Penguins would’ve thrust them ahead of the Islanders by a single point for that spot.

Mo IS the moment ✨ pic.twitter.com/2GUXSY1vft

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 31, 2026

Without Evgeni Malkin in the lineup, the Penguins’ offense wasn’t at its best early on, which allowed New York to punch home three of the game’s first four goals. But nearly halfway through the middle frame, Dan Muse‘s roster flipped a switch.

Led by Mantha, Pittsburgh rattled off four unanswered tallies to stun the UBS Arena crowd and jump ahead 5-3 to close the second period. Backed by Silovs’ eight saves in the third, Pittsburgh put the Islanders to bed with three more tallies to secure a huge two points in the standings via an 8-3 win.

Playoff-Clinching Win in New Jersey

Winners of four of their previous five contests, the Penguins rolled into the Prudential Center on April 9 with the scenario every team dreams of having late in the regular season: Win and we’re in.

All that stood between them and a long-awaited return to the Big Dance was a New Jersey Devils squad that was only playing for pride at that point, with their playoff hopes already long gone. In each of the two squads’ last two meetings, the Penguins comfortably cruised to victory by a three-goal margin. Thanks to strong performances from each member of Pittsburgh’s big three in Crosby, Malkin, and Kris Letang, it collected yet another three-goal victory from New Jersey, this time by a 5-2 margin.

Rust, Tommy Novak, and Egor Chinakhov pushed Pittsburgh in front 3-1, but Devils star Jack Hughes put the pressure on Pittsburgh heading into the third when he cut the deficit to 3-2 with a snipe from the top of the slot area. But just as they did on Long Island days before, Pittsburgh’s defense locked down the front of the net in front of its goaltender during the final 20 minutes, as Stuart Skinner faced just five shots during the stretch. At the other end, Malkin and Karlsson sealed Pittsburgh’s victory with consecutive goals.

For the first time in 1,456 days, the Penguins clinched a playoff spot, and with it, home-ice advantage in the first round.

Curtain Call in Philadelphia

One goal.

That’s all that separated the Penguins from forcing an improbable Game 7 back in Pittsburgh after being seemingly dead in the water down 3-0 in the series. Following a third period that saw Pittsburgh outshoot its cross-state rival 13-5, it carried all the game’s momentum into overtime as the nerves only grew for the Flyers faithful in attendance.

Pittsburgh continued to push the envelope out of the break, but goalie Dan Vladar stood on his head just enough to give the team in front of him room to finally end the series. Immediately after a pair of dazzling saves from Silovs on Owen Tippett and Porter Martone, the Flyers went on to win the ensuing draw, and Cam York potted the game-winner from distance in the final minutes of overtime.

The bottom line is Muse’s squad didn’t come ready to play out of the gate in Games 1 and 2, which ultimately spelled its demise. Only four teams in NHL history have ever come back from a 3-0 hole, and the Penguins learned why in this series.

As indicated by what they accomplished this season, the Stanley Cup contention window may be starting to swing open once again for the Black and Gold. Now, it’s just a matter of keeping it that way as long as possible.