On Sunday afternoon, they crushed the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, 5-2. It was the Penguins' 9th straight victory and the 21st in their last 26 games. It put them, at least temporarily, 2 points behind the Rangers atop the Eastern Conference, who hosted the Islanders on Sunday night.
Evgeni Malkin had three assists, including the 500th point of his career, and retook the N.H.L. scoring lead. His linemate James Neal, the Penguins' No. 2 scorer, had a goal and two assists. Jordan Staal had an assist, extending his point streak to a career-high eight games. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 shots and won his 37th game, the second most in the N.H.L.
All this came just 24 hours after Crosby announced he was not yet ready to return from a 40-game absence caused by concussion and neck injuries, and would wait until at least Thursday, when the Penguins meet the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
But the Penguins' success has actually prompted people to ask whether Crosby's return might upset their chemistry.
"No," defenseman Brooks Orpik said after the game, glancing across the dressing room to Malkin's stall. "You get the best player in the world back to join the second-best player in the world. It's very exciting."
Exciting, yes, but Coach Dan Bylsma will have to figure out where to put Crosby in the lineup when he comes back. How much time will Crosby take from Malkin and Staal, the other centers? Does Bylsma reunite Crosby with his former linemates, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis? Or does he leave intact the current, red-hot combinations: Malkin-Neal-Kunitz and Staal-Dupuis-Steve Sullivan?
Bylsma said he did not know, nor was it a big worry. As he said last week, "We don't need Sidney Crosby to come back and carry our team for us to win a game."
Certainly, it would be hard to find an N.H.L. team that has as much fun during practice as the Penguins, and that has been true for a few years. There is plenty of joking around, fancy shot-taking and laughter, and every practice ends with a penalty-shot contest.
So at practice Saturday in Canonsburg, Pa., as Penguin after Penguin closed in to shoot, Fleury, a born entertainer, took a different comic stance. He held his stick upside down; he pointed it like a shotgun; he pretended it was a barbell, a fly-fishing rod, a windmill. The 200 or so fans in the bleachers laughed and cheered.
Before the last shot, Bylsma skated over to say something to Fleury, then backed away. The last shooter approached — and Fleury did a full cartwheel. He was back on his feet in time to make the save.
Did Bylsma tell Fleury to do the cartwheel?
"No, I was trying to give him a rest," Bylsma said. "He told me he had one good move left."
Of course, it is easy to have fun when you are winning. But staying loose is something most Penguins cite as a helpful trait that has helped them through rafts of injuries to key players. Crosby and the top-pair defensemen Kris Letang and Paul Martin are out now; Malkin and Staal missed much of last season and portions of this season.
Neal, who was traded to the Penguins a year ago, said the Penguins had the most fun of any team he has been on.
"When you have fun every day, good things are going to happen," he said.
The Penguins have made good things happen without Crosby, who has played only eight games in the last 14 months.
"Maybe no one outside the locker room thought we could do this," Orpik said. "But we're an experienced team. We came in, we still had a lot of fun every day. Everyone was professional about it."
Last season the Penguins lost Crosby and Malkin for most of the season, yet finished with the third-best record in the East before crashing out of the playoffs in the first round.
"It was new to us last year, but this year it wasn't new to us," Orpik said. "This year our focus was more: 'If we get him back, great. If we don't, obviously we're hoping Sid gets better, but it's kind of out of our control.' It was easier to keep our focus on what we're doing."
Now the Penguins, who on Jan. 10 were in ninth place, are looking forward to playing the Rangers and trying to finish an first place.
"I don't think anyone's surprised in here," forward Arron Asham said. "Everyone's confident. We know what kind of team we are. That's a big game Thursday for us."
And bigger still if it includes Crosby. But even he is not sure where he would fit in.
"Everybody's playing really well as this point," Crosby said. "But it doesn't matter who I play with — I just want to get back in."
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