Penguins vs Canadiens: 13 Goals in Two Wins Has Pittsburgh Buzzing

Thirteen goals, and the old barn is awake

The Penguins didn’t just open the season. They kicked the door in, dropped the bag, and left the furniture in the driveway. Thirteen goals through two wins is the sort of start that makes a fan sit up in his chair and makes a coach reach for the smelling salts. This wasn’t some neat, buttoned-up, low-event hockey night. This was the kind of game that sends people home hoarse and the video crew home with a headache.

And yet, buried inside the noise, there’s the part that ought to keep everybody honest. Pittsburgh coughed up a four-goal lead in the third period against Montreal and still survived in overtime, 6-5, on Tommy Novak’s winner. That’s the whole story in a nutshell: firepower up front, too much slapdash work behind it, and a building that got treated to a little of everything.

Novak finishes it, but the alarm bells were real

Tommy Novak got the last word, and good on him. A one-timer in overtime is the cleanest way to end a mess like that. Still, nobody in the building was mistaking this for a textbook evening. A team that can score six and still nearly lose after leading by four has some sorting to do. The goals are nice. The points are nicer. But if you’re handing out that kind of daylight in your own zone, you are not exactly sending a postcard to the rest of the league that says "fear us."

That’s the old NHL bargain, though. Teams can skate around like they’ve got a tailwind for 40 minutes, and then one loose shift, one bad turnover, one lost assignment, and suddenly the night turns sideways. Pittsburgh has spent enough winters learning that lesson the hard way. NHL hockey is merciless that way. You can own the puck and still end up praying in the final five minutes.

This is a fun start, not a finished product. The Penguins are scoring like mad and defending like they left the oven on.

The offense is carrying the whole suitcase right now

There’s no use pretending otherwise: the attack looks lively. Thirteen goals over two games means this team is finding answers in bunches, and that matters in October when legs are fresh and confidence can spread fast. The Penguins have long been at their best when their stars and secondary scorers all chip in instead of waiting for one hero to drag the wagon. A lot of teams talk about depth. Pittsburgh is actually cashing it, at least for the moment.

That’s especially important for a club trying to squeeze every last useful mile out of an aging core while younger pieces try to prove they belong in the room. The trick is not merely scoring. The trick is making that scoring sustainable. Early-season offense can flatter a roster. It can hide a lot. But it can also build belief, and belief matters in a dressing room that has seen both parade routes and long, cold springs.

If you want a comparison, look back at the nights when the Penguins were rolling with pace and confidence and the building felt like it was leaning toward the ice. Those teams didn’t always play perfectly. They just made opponents pay for every mistake. That’s what this start hints at. Not perfection. Threat.

The blown lead says more than the final score

Now for the part nobody wants to pin to the fridge: giving up four goals in the third period is not some harmless little wrinkle. It tells you the game can get away from this club in a hurry if the structure gets loose. That matters because the regular season is a long grind, and the teams that survive the winter are usually the ones that can win the ugly nights, not just the popcorn nights.