Penguins Must Survive Brutal Schedule Following Olympic Break
As we are now smack dab in the middle of the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Pittsburgh Penguins entered the break as one of the most surprising teams in hockey, with a record of 29-15-12; good for a .518 winning percentage.
October got off to a very promising start for the Penguins, as they were 8-2-2.
After going 4-5-3 in November, Pittsburgh went on an eight-game losing streak from early-to-mid-December. Fortunately, half of those losses resulted in picking up a point.
Since the Christmas break, the Penguins have righted the ship; recording points in 17 of their last 20 games (14-3-3).
While most of the Penguins players are resting easy, Sidney Crosby is captaining Team Canada, Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell are representing Team Sweden, and Arturs Silovs is playing for Team Latvia.
Coming out of the Olympic break, the Pens will finish February against the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers. The rest of the schedule for March and April won’t be a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination.
Aside from playing the Metro Division leading Carolina Hurricanes three times, Pittsburgh will also square off against the other three division leaders:
Vegas Golden Knights twice - first place in the Pacific Division
Colorado Avalanche twice - first place in the Central Division
Tampa Bay Lightning - first place in the Atlantic Division
Remaining divisional games, besides Carolina, include the New Jersey Devils twice, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, and Washington Capitals twice.
Notable non-division contests will consist of the following:
Boston Bruins twice
Utah Mammoth on the road
Ottawa Senators on the road
Detroit Red Wings at home
Florida Panthers back-to-back
So how do the Penguins survive the roughest portion of the remaining schedule? The simple answer is by doing the things that have made them successful this season, such as getting consistent production from all four lines, an effective power play and penalty kill, a blue line knowing their assignments, and good goaltending.
If the Penguins continue that overall play post-Olympic break, and can be at least a slightly above .500 team rest of the way, then it’s likely good enough to get them into the playoffs for the first time since 2022.