Penguins Update: A House Divided

In one of his most inspiring and eloquent speeches, President Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Of course ol’ Honest Abe was addressing far weightier issues than the makeup of a hockey team.

Still, it came as a bit of a shock yesterday to learn the Penguins had split the roster into two teams…so early in training camp to boot.

With further ado, here are the teams. It should be noted that Zach Aston-Reese is presently in COVID protocol and will no doubt be assigned to Team 1 when he returns.

TEAM 1
Left wing Guentzel Heinen McGinn O’Connor Zucker	Center Blueger Boyle Carter Rodrigues	Right wing Angelo Kapanen Rust Simon
Left defense Dumoulin Matheson Pettersson Riikola	Right defense Letang Friedman Marino Ruhwedel	Goalie Jarry DeSmith
TEAM 2
Left wing Gruden Hallander Poulin Zohorna	Center Bellerive Chaput Lafferty Robert	Right wing Bjorkqvist Legare Olson Puustinen
Left defense Almari Bartkowski Joseph Lee	Right defense Fedun Reilly Reinke	Goalie Domingue Lindberg

Talk about separating the wheat from the chaff! Or the haves and, at least at this stage, the have nots. It doesn’t require a ton of in-depth analysis to see that Team 1 is pretty much the group coach Mike Sullivan plans to have on board to open the season.

So much for giving kids like Sam Poulin and Nathan Legare a legit shot. Although not exactly an ingénue, I’ll throw Radim Zohorna in there too, although he’s presently fighting off a non-COVID illness. Sam Lafferty, who took two minor penalties on Monday night while continuing to shoot himself in the foot, seems to have punched a ticket to eastern Pennsylvania as well.

On the flip side, I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock that Sullivan favorite Dominik Simon is decidedly in the mix on Team 1, despite Other Rick’s impassioned and unflinching analysis of the Czech forward.

Maybe it’s part psychological ploy on the part of the black-and-gold skipper to provide motivation and coax maximum effort from the kids. That didn’t exactly happen during Monday’s lackluster loss to Columbus. Defenseman Cam Lee stood out and Legare tried to do his part…perhaps a little too hard rather than letting the game come to him. But other youngsters such as Poulin, Jonathan Gruden, Pierre-Olivier Joseph failed to seize an admittedly narrow window to impress.

Although I hate to suggest this, perhaps Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is the best place for the kids to cut their teeth at the pro level. They’ll get to hone their skills in all types of situations, away from the comparative glare of the spotlight and scrutiny, not to mention a coaching staff that seems reluctant to promote them. Understandable in a way with top centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin out to start the season. Without our twin linchpins, our margin for error is anorexic and young players do tend to make mistakes.

But I digress. Sullivan insists the window is open for players to move from one team to another.

“Just because the groups are the way they are today does not mean that’s how the groups are going to be moving forward,” he stressed. “Everybody understands that. That’s a conversation that we’ve had with the group quite honestly since Day 1.”

We’ll see. For better or worse, I’m betting the black-and-gold squad that squares off against two-time defending Cup champ Tampa Bay in the season opener on October 12 will pretty much mirror our present Team 1.