It wasn’t the most obvious path to a hot start after the Olympic break.

But you can’t argue with the results.

Knowing that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be without Sidney Crosby for four weeks because of his injury suffered in Italy, there was a reason to worry that their status as one of the feel-good, surprise stories of the NHL season was in danger of collapsing during the five short games between the league’s resumption of play last Wednesday and the trade deadline this Friday.

No such concerns have manifested so far.

After a 4-1 win Thursday night against New Jersey, the Penguins took three of a possible four points in back-to-back afternoon starts over the weekend in New York and at home against Las Vegas.

How the Penguins were able to claim five of their first six available points after the three-week layoff wasn’t exactly on script.

Taking two at home against struggling New Jersey was necessary. That’s a team that had won just once in its six previous contests, can’t score at all and has managed only 60 points in 60 games this season.

Grabbing two more against the New York Rangers seemed equally as attainable heading into Saturday’s game at Madison Square Garden. Mike Sullivan’s team had the lowest point total in the Eastern Conference at puck drop with only 51.

For a while, the Penguins appeared destined to accomplish that task. Then a 2-0 lead evaporated over the final 30 minutes. Dan Muse’s team merely managed a point after suffering its latest shootout loss of the season — their NHL-worst eighth in nine tries this season.

Disappointment over leaving a point on the table at MSG in the 3-2 defeat must have been fleeting, though. Because one plane ride and 24 hours later, the Penguins posted a 5-0 shutout over the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights on Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.

“Playing as a team, sticking to our structure. I think we have a really hungry team that’s looking to prove a lot of people wrong. I think that’s just kind of been our mindset this year,” rookie Ben Kindel said on TNT after the game. “For our team, (Crosby) is a major loss. Nobody likes to see that in the hockey world in general. Our team was obviously very disappointed. Nothing we can do about it now. Just move forward.”

If you had offered me five out of a possible six points against those teams to conclude the first three games after the break, I definitely would’ve taken it. If you had told me they would’ve gotten those points by blanking Vegas and losing to the Rangers at MSG (where New York almost never wins as the home team), I wouldn’t have believed you.

But for the Penguins right now, the “how many” matters. The “how they got there” doesn’t.

Especially with the trade deadline just a few days away.

Let’s be honest, general manager Kyle Dubas probably isn’t inclined to sink many more assets into this year’s roster with Crosby’s status in doubt. That’s also to say nothing of a depth chart that is stunning many to even be in the playoff race, let alone thinking about big things in the postseason.

Even if the Penguins manage to capture four more points against Boston and Buffalo on Tuesday and Thursday (which would bolster the team’s total to 79), I wouldn’t expect a home-run swing from Dubas before Friday’s deadline.

However, a continued hot stretch before Friday sure could dissuade him from selling off any salary, and continuing his seemingly unending attempt to acquire as many draft picks as humanly possible over the next few seasons.

The win over Vegas showed Dubas — and others — why there are still reasons to believe in these Penguins.

• The break hasn’t slowed down recent acquisition Egor Chinakov. He scored again Sunday against Vegas after posting a goal during Thursday night’s victory.

That’s nine goals and 13 points since he arrived in Pittsburgh on Jan. 3.

• At 18, it doesn’t appear that Kindel has hit a wall. The rest may have done him some good. He had a goal and an assist Sunday after heading into the break with two goals against Buffalo.

• Defensively, the Penguins remain sound. Not counting the Rangers’ team-goal for the shootout win, the Pens are yielding just 2.17 goals per contest in their six games since the end of January.

• There were five different goal scorers Sunday, including Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell. They both managed to get on the scoresheet without playing on a line with Crosby by scoring on the power play.

• With Sunday’s shutout, goalie Artus Silovs now has wins in five of his last six starts. He’s also allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his last nine games.

“Just playing more. Getting more comfortable. You just kind of get in a routine,” Silovs said of his recent improvement. “Getting that experience all the time. You already understand the shooters better, the league better, every single team. Building around your game.”

 

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There were also moments Sunday such as the one from Parker Wotherspoon. Already up 4-0, he went diving through the crease in hopes of stopping any potential shot that may have come off a loose puck outside of Silovs’ wingspan.

“I can understand why people are counting us out with the track record that’s been going on a couple of years here prior,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said on TNT after the win. “But we’ve got a fantastic feeling in the group right now. I’ve been on a lot of bad teams and a lot of good teams throughout my career. Usually, the feeling within the group is determining how the season is going to go. Right from the start this year, that feeling that we had within ourselves was something special. We’ve been able to translate that out on the ice.”

All this happy talk can get diluted if the Pens lay a couple of eggs in Boston and against the Sabres. But at least the first few chapters of “Life without Sid” have been a mystery worth reading.

If the Pens win both of those games, perhaps Dubas will be inclined to add to the plot more than I’m anticipating.

Listen: Tim Benz and Joe Starkey discuss the Penguins, Steelers and Pirates in this week’s “Beyond the Bylines”