All of the concerns and mistakes were evident in the Penguins' season opener

If you still had some optimism about the 2024-25 Pittsburgh Penguins, then Wednesday night's season-opening 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers was probably quite a slap in the face.

Look, it's a game.

It's a game of 82 games.

It's also only the first game.

You don't want to jump to conclusions or overreact to a single result, especially on a night where the Western Conference champions, the Edmonton Oilers, lost by the exact same score (to a worse team, I might add).

But it's not necessarily the defeat or the result that is so disappointing about the result.

They will lose games and play games that absolutely suck. It happens.

The problem is this Away The penguins lost, just like them lookedand the way that every single concern What you could have for this team was on full display from start to finish. Worse still, there were also some issues that may not have been concerns at all.

Basically everything the Penguins have done wrong or struggled with over the last four or five years, they did on Wednesday night.

Any questions and “ifs” you may have had? They all had negative answers.

Questionable goalkeeper? Oh, buddy, did Tristan Jarry lay an egg in this game from the start? You knew it had to be a bad omen for the game when Rangers' very first shot on goal found the back of the net. When Alexis Lafrenfiere made it 2-0 with an innocent-looking shot that should have been a routine save, you knew it wasn't going to be your night. It hasn't been an encouraging start for the player in the squad who is probably under the most pressure to perform.

Failures in the defensive zone? Oh, they were everywhere and led to numerous raids by strange Rangers. Every Penguins player was on the ice for at least one goal against, while every player except Rickard Rakell was on the ice for a 5-on-5. It was an equal opportunity failure across the board.

A shorthanded goal against? Of course, that was there and helped the power play pick up where it left off a year ago.

Ryan Graves looks lost and collapses while on the ice? That happened all night, as he finished with a 33 percent shot attempt percentage and was on the ice for two goals.

Perhaps what worried me most was that the Penguins didn't even control the pace of the game or have any sort of territorial advantage. Just a year ago, their 5v5 play could at least be considered an encouraging sign, as they were able to outscore their opponents at times. You might squint and say to yourself: “Well, if they could just improve the power play and make a few saves, their 5-on-5 game would still be pretty good!”

On Wednesday, the Rangers took a sledgehammer across the board.

They were crisper, smoother, quicker, more skilled, better defensively, had a better goaltender, and looked just a level or two better than the Penguins.

To be fair, the Rangers are an excellent team. They are Stanley Cup contenders and have a ton of high-end skill. The Penguins aren't going to play teams that play this well every night, and certainly not teams that play this flawlessly. Still, it was alarming to see how far ahead of the Penguins the Rangers were.

The Rangers looked like a team on a mission, playing a meaningful game.

The Penguins looked like a team that would execute anything in a preseason game.

The scoreboard ultimately reflected this.

That doesn't mean things can't change. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will continue to have big games. There are a lot of new faces in the squad who are still getting used to each other and a new system.

But again…everything just looked like we've seen it for a few years. Just a little worse. It's time to fix this. There are fundamental reasons to believe that things can get better. It was just a terrible performance to start the season.

It's just not encouraging in any way because until this team does something to change the narrative around them, the narrative will remain the same as before. Wednesday did nothing to address those concerns. Whether it's just a game or not.