PENGUINS

Many hoped to see the traditional solo-player rookie lap when the Penguins take the ice for warmups on Tuesday evening in New York for the season opener.

That won't happen. 

Rather, it'll be two players taking that rookie lap together at Madison Square Garden. Both Harrison Brunicke and Ben Kindel will be in the lineup against the Rangers, Dan Muse confirmed after practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex on Monday afternoon.

Brunicke, after nearly making the roster last camp, seemed like a good possibility to make the roster coming out of camp this year, though it was far from certain given his lack of AHL eligibility this season. Kindel, at least externally, wasn't even on the radar. Outside of the first couple of picks in the draft, it's uncommon to see 18-year-old new draft picks to immediately make their NHL debuts. For an 11th overall pick? Extremely rare.

Kindel and Brunicke making the season-opening lineup wasn't something gifted to them out of a simple desire to get younger and give teenagers spots because they're teenagers. They earned it. They forced the Penguins to give them a roster spot and adjust accordingly -- at least, to start -- because of their performance in the preseason.

Kindel played in six of the Penguins' seven preseason games, missing only one game because it was half of a back-to-back. It's not overstating things to say that he was one of their best forwards of the exhibition season, either. A goal, two assists, and an outstanding 58.46% faceoff percentage was coupled with flashes of speed, responsible decisions away from the puck, and a lack of fear in things like going to the net front, getting involved physically despite being smaller than some of the NHL All-Stars he was being lined up against.

Brunicke skated in four of the seven contests, and looked like an NHL defenseman. There was only one spot on the right side of the Penguins' blue line "up for grabs," with Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson having the spots on the top two pairs locked up. There was sizable competition among the other righties on the roster, too. But the team looked at Brunicke as being only in competition with himself. All he had to do was prove he was ready, and the team would adjust accordingly -- whether that meant shifting other right-handed options over to their off side, sending veterans down, whatever. He proved that he was up for the challenge, and so the Penguins made room.

"They earned this," Muse said. "This wasn't something that we started training camp or went through the summer saying these guys are going to be in. Those two players were given an opportunity. Along the way, they earned new opportunities, and through those new opportunities, they're now here today. It was multiple steps that they had to go through to get to this point. There were points in exhibition where we're purposely putting them in hard situations to see how they handle them, and they handled them well. We're going into tomorrow, and both guys have earned the right to be in the opening night lineup."

Both will get some pretty significant roles in the opener, too, if Monday's practice is any indication. Kindel centered a third line with Tommy Novak and Phil Tomasino, and rotated in with the power play groups. Brunicke skated on the third pairing as expected, alongside Caleb Jones, but was tasked with a pretty significant role in quarterbacking the second power play unit.

Just how rare is it for two teenagers to make their NHL debuts together? This will mark only the third time it's happened in franchise history, following Letang and Jordan Staal in 2006 and Mario Lemieux and Doug Bodger in 1984.

Letang, nearly 20 years removed from being one half of one of those double debuts, is looking forward to seeing it happen again in New York tomorrow.

"It's always exciting for those young guys to play at this level and have a chance to show what they can do," Letang said. "We're excited for them. They actually performed really well in the preseason, and they earned a spot."

Sidney Crosby smiled after the practice at the thought of the two kids being on the eve of their debuts, saying "it's fun."

"We can all relate to that moment," he said. "For guys that are in that position, how hard they work, being able to share that with their family and have that experience, it's special. You're happy for them. It's always a little bit more motivating for sure when you have that."

For Brunicke and Kindel, the work is only beginning. Because they can't go down to the AHL, and they can only play nine games before the Penguins have to make a decision on whether to send them back to junior and avoid burning a year of their entry-level contracts. That's a short runway to prove that they're ready to be in the NHL for the full season.

Both rookies have impressed, and perhaps even defied expectations by even making it this far at their age. It's not out of the question that they could keep this up and make it impossible for the Penguins to send them back to junior.