For the first time in three weeks, last night was a hockey night in Pittsburgh.

Following the Olympic break, the Penguins got back on the ice at PPG Paints Arena, hosting the visiting New Jersey Devils on their second night of a back-to-back. Making an appearance was Jack Hughes, the scorer of Team USA’s golden goal to defeat Canada 2-1 in overtime of the gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.

Sitting up in a press box was Sidney Crosby, captain of the Canadians and Penguins. Crosby was injured during the quarterfinal game vs Czechia after taking an awkward hit by Radko Gudas. Though Crosby was reportedly close to playing in the gold medal game against the States, he ultimately couldn’t go, and now is projected to miss at least four weeks as the NHL returns.

Getting off to a hot start coming out of this break was incredibly important. The Penguins, at 70 points before last night, have the odds mostly in their favor when it comes to the playoffs. But life moves fast in the NHL, and in a hotly contested Eastern Conference playoff race, take your foot off the gas at your own risk.

But Crosby’s injury added a major wrinkle to this. The absence of Crosby, unsurprisingly the team’s leader in goals, assists, and points, is a huge blow to the upstart Penguins.

This team certainly has a different feel without him, but they showed that it’s far from time to give up on this year. They held down the fort admirably for the first of many games missing Crosby.

Look, I know New Jersey isn’t a top-tier team this season, but they still have a ton of skill up front and a Hughes brother who is still riding the high of the biggest goal he’ll likely ever score. Rarely is there ever an actual “easy night” in the NHL. New Jersey, despite their record, is no easy night.

And that’s what made these Crosby-less Penguins encouraging. Thursday night downtown saw a group that competed exactly the way they needed to coming out of the break and missing their best player.

Scoring wise, the Penguins got contributions from all over. Tommy Novak, who was promoted to top-line center for a spot flanked by Evgeni Malkin (now a winger) and fellow Russian sniper (and brand new dad) Egor Chinakov, got the team’s first goal.

Late in the first, Novak got a deflection off of a howitzer from Kris Letang on the point, in his first game back from injury.

Then in the third, in a tie game, the Penguins really started to pour it on. After Ryan Shea fired one that rang off the crossbar, the puck landed right in the wheelhouse of his defense partner in Connor Clifton, who slapped it into the net, bar down.

Less than a minute later, Chinakov used that new dad strength to make a nifty move on the backhand and give the Penguins a mutli-goal lead. From there, it was all about shutting the Devils down, which was capped off by a steal-and-score by Blake Lizotte into an empty net.

The Penguins got contributions from up and down their lineup in this game. They got goals from four different types of players on their roster, both forward and defensemen. They scored in a variety of ways, from breakaway to deflection. Evgeni Malkin had a pair of assists, once again rising to the occasion when his pal Crosby is down.

And on the backend, the Penguins played equally as well.

Arturs Silovs, fresh off representing Latvia at the Olympics, was nearly perfect with 28 saves on 29 shots. The only goal he allowed was challenged by the Penguins for goaltender interference, a protest they ultimately lost. It was one of, if not his best games of the season.

Their penalty kill was magnificent, as well. Five penalties isn’t exactly what you want to see from this bunch, but the penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5 and didn’t allow New Jersey to get back into the game, even if some of those Penguin penalties were needless.

It was everything you could have asked from this team coming off a three-week break for most of them. They played competent, sound hockey. They played like a team. And they won like a team.

It was an amazing first step.