Rickard Rakell looked around the dressing room and shook his head, almost in disbelief.

When asked about the menagerie of stars assembled by the Pittsburgh Penguins, including himself, he preached patience.

And plenty of optimism.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time to get adjusted to,” the All-Star winger said during the last stages of training camp recently. “But I think when (it clicks), we’re going to be a dangerous team.”

The Penguins didn’t exactly pose a dire level of danger to the Chicago Blackhawks in the season opener for both squads at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

Heck, they didn’t even offer a moderate measure of menace as they allowed the Blackhawks to overcome a two-goal deficit and claim a 4-2 victory.

Under the watch of new president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, who supplemented an established core of forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as well as defenseman Kris Letang with newcomers such as superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson and sturdy contributors like forward Reilly Smith and Ryan Graves, the Penguins allowed the rebuilding Blackhawks — and forward Connor Bedard, the first overall selection in this year’s draft who made his NHL debut — to sink an evening that started out buoyant for the hosts.

“We set (the tone) in the first period,” Letang said. “We didn’t set the tone for the rest of the game. Kind of (fell) back on our heels. Just tried to play like a casual game. We have to be way harder to play against, whether it’s the defensemen or the forwards, all over the ice.

“We have to bring a certain physical element that we didn’t have tonight.”

The Penguins opened the scoring 7:04 into regulation through slightly odd circumstances.

After forward Lars Eller gained the offensive zone on the left wing, he dished a cross-ice pass to Letang who drove up the right wall and chucked a wrister at the cage from a bad angle. Penguins forward Bryan Rust cruised past the near side of the crease and deflected the puck over goaltender Petr Mrazek’s left shoulder. The puck struck off the bar in the back of the cage and bounced out immediately. Play continued on for nine more seconds before officials halted proceedings and reviewed the sequence, confirming Rust’s goal. Letang and Eller had assists.

Crosby put the hosts up by two goals at 11:56 of the third period after a brilliant passing play.

Crosby slipped a cross-ice pass to linemate Jake Guentzel low in the right circle from above the left circle of the Blackhawks’ zone. Guentzel gave the ball back to Crosby, who was low in the left circle, after a little pause. Crosby blasted a wrister into a nearly empty cage as Mrazek struggled to keep up with the play. Guentzel and Marcus Pettersson both had assists.

The Blackhawks issued a coach’s challenge claiming the play to be offside, but a video review failed to reveal any evidence of that and the goal was upheld while the visitors took a bench penalty.

After the Penguins failed to capitalize on the ensuing power-play opportunity — they were 0 for 2 with the man advantage — the Blackhawks responded at 15:37 of the middle period with an industrious shift leading to a score by forward Ryan Donato.

Off a give-and-go sequence with Bedard, Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic surged up the left wing wall and lifted a wrister that Jarry fought off. Fending off Pettersson, Donato swept the rebound from above the crease past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s left skate. Assists went to Vlasic and Bedard.

Crosby put the hosts up by two goals at 11:56 of the third period after a brilliant passing play.

Crosby slipped a cross-ice pass to linemate Jake Guentzel low in the right circle from above the left circle of the Blackhawks’ zone. Guentzel gave the ball back to Crosby, who was low in the left circle, after a little pause. Crosby blasted a wrister into a nearly empty cage as Mrazek struggled to keep up with the play. Guentzel and Marcus Pettersson both had assists.

Forward At 15:29 of the third period, Jason Dickinson gave the Blackhawks their first lead.

After Rust dropped the puck on a surge into the Chicago slot, Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno took possession and went on the attack. Foligno gained the Penguins’ blue line on the left wing and left a drop pass for trailing linemate Corey Perry, who launched a wrister from the left circle that was blocked by a backchecking Crosby. Dickinson had to adjust by falling forward to one-touch an instant wrister between Jarry’s left skate and glove on the near side as the rebound bounced to the opposite circle. Perry and Foligno each had an assist.

Foligno capped the scoring with an empty-net goal at 18:33 of the final frame. Perry and Dickinson claimed assists.

While this was a lineup full of new faces for the Penguins — seven of the 18 non-goaltenders they dressed skated their first shifts for the franchise — an old problem that pockmarked the 2022-23 season lurked as they yielded late goals in a come-from-ahead defeat.

What happened in the final 24:31 of this contest?

“I think just our puck management,” said Jarry, who managed to allow three pucks to get behind him on 35 shots. “They were getting a lot of pucks deep on us. They were trying to get the puck to open space. A couple of breakdowns and they were able to get the puck in the net.”

The Penguins have a mere 81 games remaining in the regular season to refine their play and remove the deficiencies they displayed in their season opener.

“I’m not too panicked about Game 1,” Graves said. “But you can’t take it lightly. You can’t panic with it, but you also need to understand that you need to learn from each game.

“You can always improve on it.”

Notes:

• Guentzel was in the lineup just over two months following surgery on his right ankle. Management initially suggested he would miss the first five games of the season, but he was able-bodied enough to log 19:21 of ice time on 21 shifts and recorded four shots on five attempts as well as an assist.

“Jake played really hard,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s the first game that he’s played. Some of our other guys have got some (preseason) games. When you get in the game-real environment, it’s just difficult to simulate that in any sort of practice or environment that Jake has been in up until this point. For his first game, he competed really hard. … He’s a competitive guy. His timing and things of that nature will get better as he plays. His chemistry with Sid will continue to improve. For the first game, he played hard.”

• Penguins defensemen John Ludvig and Ryan Shea were healthy scratches.

• In addition to Eller, Graves, Karlsson and Smith, forwards Noel Acciari, Jansen Harkins and Matt Nieto made their Penguins debuts.

• Smith became the 22nd player in franchise history to wear No. 19 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Bob Rivard, Jean Pronovost, Dale Tallon, Greg Sheppard, Rick MacLeish, Grant Sasser, Arto Javananien, Willy Lindstrom, Dave McLlwain, Randy Gilhen, Bryan Trottier, Vladimir Vujtek, Rico Fata, Ramzi Abid, Ryan Whitney, Mike Comrie, Jason Williams, Beau Bennett, Derick Brassard, Jared McCann, Alex Nylander

• Eller is the 33rd player in franchise history to wear No. 20 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Ab McDonald, Bob Woytowich, Dean Prentice, Robin Burns, John Stewart, Steve Cardwell, Yvon Labre, Jacques Cossette, Yves Bergeron, Pete Mahovlich, Paul Marshall, Gregg Sheppard, Paul Gardner, Gary Rissling, Moe Mantha, Dave Hunter, Dave Hannan, Perry Ganchar, Jamie Leach, Jeff Daniels, Luc Robitaille, Bryan Smolinski, Stu Barnes, Greg Johnson, Roman Oksiuta, Robert Lang, Mathias Johansson, Mike Eastwood, Colby Armstrong, Janne Pesonen, Rob Klinkhammer, Frank Corrado

• Graves is the 22nd player in franchise history to wear No. 27 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Jim Morrison, Joe Noris, Jim Shires, Hank Nowak, Yves Bergeron, Pete LaFramboise, Mike Corrigan, Jacques Cossette, Rod Schutt, Todd Charlesworth, Gilles Meloche, Scott Bjugstad, Gilbert Delorme, Jamie Leach, Glen Murray, Eddie Olczyk, Alexei Kovalev, Georges Laraque, Craig Adams, Nick Bjugstad, Kevin Czuczman

• Harkins is the seventh player in franchise history to wear No. 43 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Jeff Daniels, Tomas Surovy, Philippe Boucher, Scott Wilson, Conor Sheary, Danton Heinen

• Acciari is the sixth player in franchise history to wear No. 55 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Larry Murphy, Drake Berehowsky, Ric Jackman, Sergei Gonchar, Philip Samuelsson

• Karlsson is the third player in franchise history to wear No. 65 in a game of consequence. His predecessors:

Ben Lovejoy, Ron Hainsey

• Nieto became the first player in franchise history to wear No. 83 in a game of consequence. He wears that number for the most profound of reasons: his sister.

• Pettersson pulled into the Penguins’ top 100-career scorers. He is tied for 99th place with Paul Baxter, Wally Boyer and Ulf Samuelsson with 94 points each.

• Bedard recorded 21:29 of ice time on 21 shifts. In addition to his assist, Bedard had five shots on 11 attempts and was 2 for 13 on faceoffs (15%).

• Bedard became the fifth top overall pick in a draft to make his NHL debut against the Penguins. His predecessors were:

Buffalo Sabres forward Gilbert Perreault (drafted in 1970). In a 2-1 win for the Sabres at the Civic Arena on Oct. 10, 1970 — the first game in that franchise’s history — Perreault scored the game-winning goal.

Philadelphia Flyers forward Eric Lindros (1991). Drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, Lindros infamously refused to play for that team and was traded to the Flyers, making his debut in a 3-3 tie at the Civic Arena on Oct. 6, 1992. Lindros had a goal in that contest.

New York Islanders forward John Tavares (2009). In a 4-3 shootout win by the Penguins at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Tavares registered a regulation goal and an assist.

Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011). Scoring his team’s only regulation goal, Nugent-Hopkins helped the Oilers claim a 2-1 win at Rexall Place.

• Finally, a floral arrangement and a card were placed in the press box in recognition of longtime Pittsburgh sports broadcaster Stan Savran who died in June. Savran had a profound connection to the Penguins over several decades.

Remembering the wonderful Stan Savran in the press box tonight: