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Stuart Skinner’s brilliance propels Penguins to perfect trip

January 26, 2026
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VANCOUVER — For the first time on this trip, the Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t at their best.

Their No. 1 goalie experienced no such letdown.

Stuart Skinner continued his outstanding play as the lethargic Penguins nearly blew a third-period lead but hung on to defeat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Sunday at Rogers Arena.

One of the better trips in franchise history concluded with the Penguins running the table, winning all four games in regulation. During the 4-0 trip, they outscored the opposition by a whopping 19-8 total.

Skinner was the story, stopping 30 of 32 shots, including a wild flurry in the final seconds. The Penguins were sluggish in the first period and downright shaky in the third, but their goaltender never wilted.

“No. 1 star of this game as far as I’m concerned,” Ryan Shea said. “Stu has been unreal for us. He was again tonight.”

Ben Kindel, a Vancouver native, scored twice. Evgeni Malkin started the scoring with his 13th goal of the season.

In a strange moment at the game’s conclusion, Malkin appeared to aggravate the shoulder injury that kept him out for a month earlier this season. He was on the bench during the final seconds when Anthony Mantha appeared to bump him in celebration. Malkin collapsed to the ground in apparent pain.

 

However, Dan Muse told reporters after the game that he believed Malkin was OK.

The same doesn’t appear to be the case for Jack St. Ivany, who left in the first period with an injury to his left hand and did not return. He is expected to miss some time.

The Penguins scored three times in the second period to take a comfortable lead, even though they never looked sharp against the team with the NHL’s worst record.

“I think everyone would agree that this wasn’t our best game at all,” Shea said. “We were finding ways to lose these types of games earlier this year. Now we’re winning them.”

Only three teams in the Eastern Conference — the Detroit Red Wings, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes — have more than the Penguins’ 63 points.

Only five teams in the NHL — Tampa Bay, Carolina, the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars and the Utah Mammoth — have a better goal differential than the Penguins’ plus-17.

The Penguins are 4 points ahead of the New York Islanders in the race for second place in the Metropolitan Division and trail Carolina by 6 points for the top spot. They have a game in hand on the Hurricanes, who they play three times in March.

“You come out west and win all four games like this,” Tommy Novak said. “I mean, I think that’s pretty impressive.”

Ten postgame observations

• What a day for Kindel.

The 18-year-old Vancouver native ended his 19-game drought without a goal, and he did it in style. Kindel scored twice and has 10 goals in his rookie season.

He had quite an audience. I’ve heard of players having a lot of fans in attendance at games, sometimes 40 or 50 people. I’ve even heard of coaches and players having as many as 100 people in attendance.

Kindel, on this day, had 192 friends and family members in attendance. They let out a couple of massive roars on each of his goals.

He almost seemed embarrassed by all of the postgame attention.

The thing about Kindel that most impresses me — and it was on display again today — is how good he is defensively. Even though he went 19 games without scoring a goal, there was never a time when he was hurting the Penguins. He’s freakishly steady for a player his age.

• The Malkin incident at the end of the game was bizarre.

It appeared Mantha made contact with his shoulder, and he dropped like a ton of bricks. The Penguins didn’t reveal any specifics, but Muse did tell reporters after the game that he doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong with Malkin.

That, obviously, is a big deal because his importance right now goes without saying.

Still, it’s fair to be concerned about Malkin’s shoulder. The Olympic break could do wonders for him.

• Speaking of Malkin, the Penguins’ second line was by far the best line on the ice. Not even close.

I spoke with Novak after the game. He’s been centering the second line and doing an outstanding job, developing some very clear chemistry with Malkin and Egor Chinakhov.

Before the season, I was told Malkin had told members of the coaching staff and management that he saw something in Novak’s game that he liked, and he wanted to play with him during the 2025-26 season.

They didn’t play together during the season’s first two months. Now, however, they are. They’re thriving.

Novak played in only four periods with the Penguins last season before suffering a season-ending injury. Malkin saw something in that time that made him think he and Novak would work.

“I heard that from Kyle (Dubas) that Geno wanted to play with me,” Novak said. “You can’t put too much stock into it because he only ever saw me play for a game and a half, you know?”

He saw something, and there appears to be a significant amount of chemistry between the two.

Novak took the modest way out.

“I think that guy is so good that he would have chemistry with anyone,” he said.

• I don’t have much else to add about Skinner. This is the best stretch of goaltending the Penguins have received in years.

Skinner has allowed only 13 goals in the eight starts he’s made since the Christmas break.

On some nights, the Penguins were quite defensive in front of him. This wasn’t one of those games. Vancouver might not be the NHL’s most gifted team, but the Canucks enjoyed one Grade-A look after another in this game and were working with a surge of momentum in the final minutes.

He robbed Brock Boeser with his best save as a member of the Penguins.

When the game was on the line, Skinner did not blink.

• The Penguins’ top line had a quiet day.

But that’s no big deal. In fact, it’s encouraging this team can win games and produce offense even on days when Sidney Crosby and his wingers are fairly quiet. It was one of those days.

• Kris Letang returned to the lineup after missing the two games in Alberta with an injury.

Letang looked a little unprepared on numerous occasions during the first period, but I thought he got better as the game went on. With St. Ivany out, I’d expect Letang, Erik Karlsson and Connor Clifton to man the right side of the blue line.

• This game had trouble written all over it. Yes, the Canucks have the NHL’s worst record. But the Penguins had to have been feeling good about themselves after just crushing the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. Then they had a couple of nights in Vancouver, and Vancouver is one of those cities where too much time can be a problem.

They were sluggish in this game, but they weren’t terrible. They just didn’t have a lot of jump.

Good teams find ways to win when they aren’t at their best. That’s exactly what we saw.

• The Penguins probably weren’t going to make it home Sunday night because of the weather in Pittsburgh but had already planned to return Monday because of the rookie dinner Sunday night.

• The Canucks are enduring an absolutely terrible season but, I have to say, they play very hard and probably outplayed the Penguins during most of this game. Right now, nothing is going right for them.

• This was some kind of a good trip in what has been a magical season. The numbers speak for themselves.

Also, it should be noted the schedule couldn’t be more favorable than it is. The Penguins don’t play again until Thursday, and their next three games are at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators, three teams out of the playoff picture.

Granted, the Penguins might prefer staying on the road, as only Tampa Bay has earned more road victories than the Penguins’ 15 this season.

Nonetheless, it will be good for the Penguins to get home, where they have a serious opportunity to take advantage of a soft spot in their schedule. After the Olympic break, things turn nasty. But if they finish things off properly in their final five games before the break, a playoff berth is very much going to be within their grasp when the season resumes.

This is a good team.




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