Ben Kindel wasn’t planning any kind of grand celebration for his 19th birthday Sunday.

After all, he has to get to work on Monday as an employee of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Obviously, a big game tomorrow,” the rookie third-line center said. “Probably keep it pretty chill.”

Kindel and the Penguins will face the rival Philadelphia Flyers in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series Monday at PPG Paints Arena. As for Game 1, a 3-2 home loss for the Penguins, Kindel made a little bit of history on the last day of his 18th year on this planet.

He joined forward Jordan Staal (18 years, 213 days) and Richard Park (18 years, 346 days) as the only players to make their postseason debuts for the Penguins as an 18-year-old. Staal broke through in the 2007 postseason, while Park joined the club during the 1995 playoffs.

Beyond the footnote, Kindel displayed some boldness fairly early in Game 1 when Penguins-Flyers became … well … Penguins-Flyers just 1 minute, 53 seconds into regulation.

Kindel’s linemate, Elmer Soderblom (6-foot-8, 252 pounds), skated into the offensive zone offside and an official whistled play dead. A few (too many) seconds after the whistle, Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (6-foot-4, 208 pounds) gave an unsuspecting Soderblom a shoulder check, sending him sprawling to the ice.

Without hesitation, Kindel (5-11, 182) shoved the rugged Ristolainen, who wound up with a roughing penalty after the sequence.

Seeing 18-year-olds play in Stanley Cup playoff games is uncommon. Seeing them go after much bigger players is rarer.

“It doesn’t really matter your size or the size difference,” Kindel said. “No matter what, you’ve just got to play bigger than you are and engage physically and not back down. That’s important to show you’re strong, show the other team that you’re not going to back down.”

Kindel’s intrepidness does not go unnoticed by his teammates.

“That 100% shows that he’s bought in and shows that everyone else is bought in,” defenseman Ryan Shea said. “A guy like that doing it when it’s usually the other side that we’re trying to protect him (from) as much as possible. I’ve grown to learn that he’s a pretty feisty kid when it comes down to it. So, maybe he doesn’t need that much protection as I thought.

“Every game, I feel like he’s always in the scrum. It’s pretty special because it shows everyone else that if a guy like that at that age can do that, then everyone else can.”

Not everyone gets to play in the NHL at 18 (or now, 19). But not everyone has had the blend of exuberance with temperance that Kindel has offered in his first professional season.

“It’s crazy, 19-year-old and putting up (35) points in the NHL,” said the 29-year-old Shea. “I was a sophomore in college (at Northeastern). So, I was living life as a true 19-year-old. Not living life like ‘Kindy’ is living like right now. It’s crazy when you see it’s his birthday, and he’ s only 19.

“He’s got two more full years until he’s 21. It feels like it’s a mile away.”

Kindel isn’t looking that far ahead.

“Came to the rink, it was a regular day today,” Kindel said. “We’re looking to get the job done tomorrow and execute tomorrow. That’s about it.

“Tomorrow’s a new day, a new game. It’s a long series.”

Notes:

• The Penguins’ lines and pairings during a practice session in Cranberry were:

59 Egor Chinakhov – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust

18 Tommy Novak – 67 Rickard Rakell – 71 Evgeni Malkin

25 Elmer Soderblom – 81 Ben Kindel – 39 Anthony Mantha

19 Connor Dewar – 46 Blake Lizotte – 55 Noel Acciari

28 Parker Wotherspoon – 65 Erik Karlsson

49 Sam Girard – 58 Kris Letang

5 Ryan Shea – 75 Connor Clifton

7 Ilya Solovyov – 3 Jack St. Ivany

• Forwards Justin Brazeau and Kevin Hayes operated as reserves. Defensemen Ryan Graves and Jake Livanavage worked out on an auxiliary rink with a team staffer.

• The top power-play unit included Crosby, Karlsson, Malkin, Rakell and Rust. The second unit included Chinakhov, Kindel, Letang, Mantha and Novak.

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