PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby has been doing this for longer than Ben Kindel has been alive. Alex Ovechkin has, too, for that matter.

So yeah, it was maybe a little surreal for the Pittsburgh Penguins rookie forward, all of 18, to be on the ice Thursday night alongside the two players who have defined their franchises and in many ways the NHL for two decades and counting.

The calendar says it’s 2025. Yet watching the 39-year-old Crosby score two goals to boost his season total to an NHL-leading 11 and have the 40-year-old Ovechkin collect two assists to fuel a second-period Washington rally in what eventually became a 5-3 Penguins victory, it was hard to tell.

“Kind of like the old Sid and Ovi rivalry there,” Kindel said after picking up the first two assists of his still very young career. “It was great to see and unreal to watch.”

That Crosby and Ovechkin found a way to summon a little something special during their 99th all-time meeting (playoffs included) is hardly surprising. The two future Hall of Famers have long had a habit of bringing out the best in each other.

What is surprising, however, is that for the first time in what seems like a long time — by the Penguins’ standards at least — the game felt like it carried actual stakes.

New faces, new energy

The team considered a long shot to reach the playoffs when the season began — only woeful Chicago and San Jose faced slimmer odds of hoisting the Stanley Cup than Pittsburgh — finds itself tied with New Jersey for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division a month in.

Yes, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. And yes, the injuries are starting to pile up, from veteran forward Rickard Rakell to 6-foot-6 “power” forward Justin Brazeau, from goaltender Tristan Jarry to center Filip Hallander, who the team announced Friday is out at least three months because of a blood clot in his leg.

Still, the Penguins have been one of the NHL’s most pleasant early surprises.

A massive influx of fresh faces and fresh blood has brought an energy that was lacking as the team’s run of three championships in nine years became an increasingly distant memory.

The arrival of first-year coach Dan Muse and his high-energy approach has provided a jolt. So has the emergence of teenagers Kindel and 19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke, who has shown promise during an extended look before he likely returns to his junior team for a little more seasoning.

“They always give us juice,” said Penguins forward Bryan Rust, who at 33 is the fourth-longest tenured player on the team behind Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. “Obviously, they’re so excited to come in the rink and they’re having fun. They always got a smile on their face and they are also really, really good players. So I think that combination can really help a few of us older guys that have a little bit more fun, too.”

The organizational overhaul general manager Kyle Dubas began in earnest when he traded away popular two-time Stanley Cup winner Jake Guentzel at the deadline in the spring of 2024 is starting to bear fruit.

Pittsburgh’s prospect pool is far deeper than when Dubas arrived in 2023, and one of them seems to have bypassed the “pool” entirely.

Kindel, taken with the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft, made the club coming out of training camp and has five goals and two assists in 13 games. On Thursday night, he found himself on the first line with Rust and Crosby and earned a promotion to the top power play unit, where he held his own in a group featuring a a handful of players bound for the Hall of Fame.

“You can see he’s comfortable out there,” Muse said.

There’s a lot of that going around. The Penguins have the league’s second-ranked power play unit and have been buoyed by Jarry’s apparent return to form after the two-time All-Star was demoted to the minors. While Jarry is out for at least three weeks with a lower-body injury, his absence will give the club a chance to see how close 21-year-old phenom Sergei Murashov is to being NHL-ready on a full-time basis.

While Kyle has pathologically avoided putting any sort of timetable on when the rebuild (a term he has never used) is complete, he did say at the start of training camp in September that he believes the Penguins can return to contender status while Crosby remains on the roster.

A good team?

There’s a chance it might happen with Malkin, 39 and in the final year of his current contract with no sign of an extension on the horizon, still around, too.

The Russian star is tied for third in the NHL in points with 20, including 17 assists. His pretty cross-ice feed to Rust that Rust converted into the go-ahead goal midway through the third period against Washington helped Pittsburgh avoid a second straight late collapse.

On Monday night in Toronto, the Penguins dominated play for 40 minutes only to crumble in the final period as the Maple Leafs ripped off four straight goals to pull out a 4-3 win.

When Washington’s Tom Wilson beat Arturs Silovs from his knees to tie it at 3 late in the second period on Thursday, it seemed the feel-good vibes the Penguins have been generating throughout the past month were on the verge of disappearing.

“It would have been really easy for this group to cave,” Muse said. “It would have been really easy for this group to play back on their heels, play worried.”

They didn’t. They fended off a couple of Washington power plays, then pounced when Rust redirected Malkin’s tape-to-tape pass and didn’t let up the rest of the way.

Sure, it’s still just early November. Yet for a team that looked lifeless for long stretches over the last couple of years of former head coach Mike Sullivan’s otherwise highly successful tenure as the roster churned and the play of its stars (Crosby aside) sagged, it’s a start.

“We’re finding ways to win games in a lot of different ways,” Rust said, later adding, “I think being able to win in all sorts of ways, I think, is a sign of a good team.”

Or at the very least, an interesting one.

NEW YORK (AP) — Matthew Schaefer added another milestone to his fast start with the New York Islanders on Sunday.

Schaefer had two goals in a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Schaefer, who turned 18 on Sept. 5, became the youngest defenseman in NHL history with a multigoal game, moving in front of Hall of Famer Bobby Orr (18 years, 248 days on Nov. 23, 1966).

Schaefer, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NHL draft, has five goals and five assists in his first 12 games with New York.

“It has been fun to watch. He’s great skater. He’s super poised,’’ Islanders teammate Simon Holmstrom said. “He was able to score two big goals for us tonight.”

Schaefer scored a power-play goal when he converted a booming shot 5:53 into the first period. He tied it at 2 with 1:07 left in the third, and Holmstrom tapped a loose puck past goaltender Elvis Merzlikins for the winning score with 38 seconds remaining.

“Oh wow, it’s fun hockey to play and fun hockey to watch,’’ Schaefer said after the victory. “A couple of big goals in the last minute.”

Schaefer once again heard his name chanted by the home crowd at UBS Arena. It was a similar scene when he scored his first NHL goal during the Islanders’ home opener on Oct. 11.

“That was a big shift. That’s what happens when you put pucks on net,” Schaefer said of his tying goal as Islanders captain Anders Lee screened Merzlikins. “A big grind out of the guys.”

Schaefer became the third-youngest player in the NHL’s expansion era, since the 1967-68 season, to record two goals in a game. Only Jordan Staal (18 years, 41 days on Oct. 21, 2006) and Pierre Turgeon (18 years, 54 days on Oct. 21, 1987) accomplished the feat at a younger age.

Schaefer played junior hockey last season for the Erie Otters. Now he is manning the point on New York’s power play, regularly logging major minutes and contributing well beyond the scoresheet.

He is quick to deflect praise, crediting Lee with successfully impeding the view of Merzlikins.

“Teammates, I just have to rely on them,’’ Schaefer said. “I don’t think that’s going in if Leezy is not there screening the goalie. I don’t think he really saw much.”

KLADNO, Czech Republic — At age 53, Jaromir Jagr began his 38th professional season by playing on the fourth line for his hometown Kladno Knights in a 3-1 victory over Vitkovice on Friday night in the Czech league.

The former NHL great logged 10:08 minutes ice time and joined the power play unit in a season debut that had been delayed because of a muscle problem.

It was Kladno’s 15th game of the season. Jagr was 53 years, 244 days old.

Jagr made his debut for Kladno at age 16 and returned to the club in 2018 when the Calgary Flames released him. Jagr remains second on the NHL’s all-time points list, only trailing Wayne Gretzky.

Jagr, whose 766 NHL goals rank him No. 4 all-time on that list, played 11 seasons in Pittsburgh, winning the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

Jagr didn’t talk to media after his season’s debut Friday.

“He makes his presence felt in the locker room,” forward Jakub Konecny said. “We have a lot of fun with him.”

Until early this year, Jagr served in dual roles as Kladno player and owner, splitting his time between chasing sponsors and dealing with administrative duties and ice time.

Jagr acquired full ownership in 2017 and sold a majority stake in Kladno last January to boost the team financially.

Then, he said he would be happy to complete the season by trying to lead Kladno to the playoffs for the first time.

They didn’t reach the playoffs. So, he’s got another chance this season.

Goaltender Carter Hart has agreed to sign with the Vegas Golden Knights, becoming the first of the five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players to land an NHL contract since they were acquitted of sexual assault in a high-profile case.

Vegas announced an agreement with undisclosed terms for Hart on Thursday, the second day after the window opened for the players to sign.

Hart and the others are not eligible to play in games until Dec. 1 as part of the league’s reinstatement process for him, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton.

“The Golden Knights are aligned with the process and assessment the NHL and NHLPA made in their decision,” the team said in a statement. “We remain committed to the core values that have defined our organization from its inception and expect that our players will continue to meet these standards moving forward.”

McLeod, who was also found not guilty of an additional charge of being a party to the offense, signed a three-year contract in the Russia-based KHL. Formenton is playing in Switzerland, though it is unclear if he has an out clause to return to the NHL, which he has not played in since 2022 with Ottawa.

“Each team is going to have to make its own decision," Commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday after the NHL's Board of Governors meeting in New York. “They know the rules. And it’s up to them to decide whether or not, subject to those rules, they want to move forward.”

Hart is resuming his career at the age of 27 with the Golden Knights after spending his first six seasons playing for Philadelphia. The Flyers last month ruled out bringing back Hart, whose camp communicated to general manager Daniel Briere that a fresh start was a better option.

The players were charged in 2024 in connection with an incident in London, Ontario, in 2018. The judge overseeing the trial said the prosecution could not meet the onus of proof to convict them and that complainant’s allegations lacked the credibility needed to justify the charges.

The league conducted its own investigation beginning in the spring of 2022 when the allegations came to light. When announcing the reinstatement timeline in September, the NHL called the events that transpired “deeply troubling and unacceptable” and that while they were not found to be criminal, said the players’ conduct did not meet the standard of moral integrity.

The NHLPA at the time said the players cooperated with every investigation and considers the matter closed.

NEW YORK — Expansion was not discussed at the NHL's Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Gary Bettman said afterward.

The league has been at 32 teams since Seattle entered for the 2021-22 season. There are groups who have aspirations of franchises in Atlanta and Houston, among other places.

“There is, and continues to be, interest from lots of places,” Bettman said. "But none of it has reached the level that we need to focus on at this point.”

Asked if the door could be opened on the expansion front at the next board meeting in December in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bettman said that's not for the NHL to decide.

“If somebody knocks on the door, we’ll peek around to see who’s knocking and then decide what to do with it,” Bettman said.

Among other topics, Bettman expressed concern about the construction timeline of the main hockey arena in Milan for the upcoming Olympics and said it's up to the International Olympic Committee.

“We are constrained in what we can and can’t do, request and demand and if it reached a certain point, we’ll have to deal with it,” Bettman said. “But I’m not speculating, and we’ve been constantly assured by the IOC and the (International Ice Hockey Federation) that it will be OK."

The salary cap is seeing record increases this year and over the following two as revenues are skyrocketing. Bettman flatly denied buzz that had been going around about the cap being more than $104 million next season.

“There’s no change,” Bettman. “I know there’s a rumor going around that we’re in discussions about the cap. That’s absolutely, categorically untrue. There have been no discussions. It is what we’ve already agreed to.”

Bettman opened his chat with reporters by saying there was no news to report.

“Basically, it’s a nuts and bolts meeting,” Bettman said. “Nothing too dramatic.”

Governors - a mix of owners, team presidents, general managers and other executives - got updates on the state of the league, hockey operations and officiating and efforts to grow the game internationally.

Bettman said he had nothing to share on the sale process involving the Pittsburgh Penguins.

As planning continues for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said he expects 18 cities in North America and 10 in Europe to bid to host part of the event.

Asked about his future running the NHL, the 73-year-old Bettman said: “I’m here, and I’m not planning on going anywhere for a while. And I don’t know what a while is.”

CHICAGO — Jeff Blashill’s first three games with the Chicago Blackhawks were one-goal losses decided in the third period or overtime.

His fourth one was a long-awaited victory.

Blashill directed Chicago to a 3-1 win over Utah on Monday night for his first victory since he was hired by the Blackhawks in May.

“It was really disappointing over the first three games that we had moments of good hockey and put ourselves in position to win and didn’t,” Blashill said. “So to get the win is nice. For me personally, it’s, you know, it’s a good feeling. You want to get that first one out of the way, and hopefully there’s many more to come.”

Blashill, 51, is beginning his second stint as a head coach in the NHL after he went 204-261-72 in seven seasons with Detroit. He was an assistant with Tampa Bay for the previous three years.

The Michigan native is hoping to lead the Blackhawks out of a painful rebuilding project that had the team in last place in the Central Division in each of the previous three years.

This season just started, but there have been some encouraging signs.

“I like him as a coach and a person,” goaltender Spencer Knight said. “I really appreciate his eye for details, for building a style that is sustainable over time to win not just one hockey game in October, but to build a system that can win continuously over the course of a season and then hopefully into the postseason. That’s what really matters.”

The Blackhawks were tied at 2 after two periods in each of their first three games. They lost 4-3 in overtime at Boston on Thursday night. They dropped their home opener on Saturday on Kaiden Guhle’s goal with 15.7 seconds left, lifting Montreal to a 3-2 win.

Blashill’s team had a 1-0 lead over Utah before JJ Peterka scored for the Mammoth 1:02 into the third period. But Andre Burakovsky scored a power-play goal for Chicago at 8:55, and Ilya Mikheyev helped close it out with an empty-netter in the final seconds for his second goal of the night.

“We’ve been in this situation four times now where you know they’re one-goal games late,” Blashill said. “That’s a good thing. But you have to find ways to win. You can’t just be close in those games. You have to continue to find ways to win, which we did tonight.”

Like Knight, the 30-year-old Burakovsky also praised Blashill’s attention to details, and he said it played a role in the victory over the Mammoth.

“I think today, even though we maybe didn’t have so much puck the whole time, I think our details on the defensive side were really good,” he said. “And that’s something we’ve been working on. So good job by him to help us get through there.”

MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens signed last season’s NHL rookie of the year, defenseman Lane Hutson, to an eight-year, $70.8 million contract extension.

The extension kicks in for the 2026-27 season after Hutson’s rookie contract expires and runs through 2033-34. The 21-year-old is from Michigan and was selected in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Boston University.

In his first full NHL season, Hutson set a franchise single-season rookie record with 66 points and tied the franchise mark with a team-leading 60 assists. He led all rookies in points as well as 26 power-play points and by averaging 22 minutes and 44 seconds of ice time over 82 games.

Hutson played a role in helping the young, rebuilding Canadiens qualify for the playoffs last season for the first time in four years.

He became the Canadiens’ seventh player to win the Calder Trophy and first since goalie Ken Dryden in 1971-72.

NEW YORK — Matthew Schaefer won’t soon forget his first NHL goal.

The 18-year-old defenseman and top overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft dove headfirst into the moment, literally.

Schaefer found a loose puck after a scramble in front of the net and lunged forward, poking it past Washington Capitals goalie Logan Thompson at 4:28 of the third period in the Islanders’ 4-2 loss Saturday night.

“It’s crazy, I love these fans,” Schaefer said of the reaction inside UBS Arena during New York’s home opener. “Getting your name chanted out there. It’s awesome, feels like home for sure. ... We want to win for the fans and we want to be there every night for them. They come out every night for us.

“We wish we could have gotten the win for them and for the team in here. We are going to keep working, keep working toward that.”

The goal cut Washington’s lead to two, but the Islanders couldn’t rally while falling to 0-2 on the season.

Still, it was a milestone for the rookie, who made the team out of training camp just months after hearing his name called first in Los Angeles at the draft.

“He kind of took the game over to be honest with you,” Islanders alternate captain Bo Horvat said. “He was our best player tonight. He was moving, he was obviously contributing. He is just so effective out there. He is just getting more and more comfortable every single game. He is a special player, we are lucky to have him.”

Brad Penner/Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Schaefer’s play has already earned the coaching staff’s full trust. After getting an assist for his first NHL point while logging 17:15 of ice time in the Islanders’ 4-3 season-opening loss at Pittsburgh on Thursday, he had a game-high 26:04 of ice time in this one. That was more than four minutes ahead of Mathew Barzal’s 21:28.

“I’m not balancing anything right now with the way he’s playing,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said of Schaefer’s workload. “He forced me to play him — he forced us to play him — so we’re going to give it to him.”

Few players have entered the draft with less recent game experience. Schaefer played just 17 games for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League in 2024-25, missing time with mononucleosis and later a broken clavicle sustained while representing Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. He still managed 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) and a plus-21 rating.

The Ontario native also captained Canada to gold medals at the 2024 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge and the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

Now, just 18 and already on NHL ice, his first goal offered a glimpse of why the Islanders are looking for big things from the youngster for years to come.

SEATTLE — Jared McCann score with 3.8 seconds left in overtime, lifting the Seattle Kraken to a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.

With time running down, Matty Beniers, who put the Kraken up 1-0 in the second period, ripped a shot from the left circle that bounced off goalie Adin Hill’s pads. McCann was positioned right on top of the crease and shot the rebound past Hill for his second goal of the year and his 400th career point.

Joey Daccord made 26 saves, with four of those in overtime. He has 61 saves through his first two games.

The Kraken have their first 2-0-0 start in team history.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored his league-leading fifth goal of the season for the Knights. Hill made 20 saves.

Each of Vegas’ first three games have gone beyond regulation. The Knights (1-0-2) fell 6-5 in a shootout to Los Angeles on Wednesday, then came from behind to beat San Jose on Thursday, 4-3.

Beniers scored at 7:58 of the second period with his first of the year and Seattle’s first on the power play, tucking in a back pass from Jordan Eberle just inside the right post past Hill.

Dorofeyev tied it 1-1 at 4:11 of the third on the power play. That was his fourth of the season with the man advantage, also a league high. He has all four of Vegas’ power-play goals. This one came on a shot from the left circle on a pass from Mark Stone.

It was just Seattle’s fifth win in 15 games against Vegas.

Up next

Golden Knights: Visit Calgary on Tuesday night.

Kraken: Visit Montreal on Tuesday night to start a six-game road trip.

DENVER — Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen scored shootout goals, Jake Oettinger stopped Nathan MacKinnon on Colorado’s final shot, and the Dallas Stars beat the Avalanche 5-4 on Saturday night.

Oettinger had 35 saves through overtime and two more in the shootout for Dallas, which spoiled a milestone night for Brent Burns, who had an assist for his first point in a Colorado sweater.

Burns became the eighth defenseman to play in 1,500 career games and he extended his ironman streak in the NHL at 928 games, the longest active one in the NHL and fourth longest in league history.

Thomas Harley had a goal and an assist and Nathan Bastian and Robertson scored 3:03 apart in the second period to give Dallas a 3-2 lead.

Rantanen helped eliminate his former team in Game 7 of the first round last spring with a third-period hat trick. He got the better of the Avalanche again, beating Scott Wedgewood for the deciding goal in the shootout.

Wedgewood stopped 18 shots and one in the shootout.

Saturday night had a playoff feel, with a fight, shoving matches and momentum swings throughout the night. Marty Necas and MacKinnon had a goal and two assists each for Colorado, but both were stopped by Oettinger in the shootout.

Artturi Lehkonen tied it 3-all 34 seconds into the third but Wyatt Johnston answered with a breakaway goal 1:24 later.

MacKinnon tied it with a power-play goal midway through the third period.

Gavin Brindley gave Colorado a 2-1 lead midway through the second period with his first career goal after Necas had answered Harley’s goal with his third of the season.

Up next

Stars: Host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night in their home opener.

Avalanche: On the road at the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.