Hey all. As I’d mentioned in a comment to Other Rick’s article today, my attention is presently being drawn off by another writing project. (I hope to publish my first fiction book. A tale for another time.) But I still intend to keep my fingers in the Penguins pie as much as possible.
Along those lines, coach Mike Sullivan and his staff split the troops into three teams during the first day of training camp. Appropriately named Team 1, Team 2 and Team 3.
Here are the rosters and line combinations as posted by Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Twitter.
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Team 1 |
Team 2 |
Team 3 |
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Forwards Guentzel-Crosby-Puustinen O’Connor-Poehling-Rakell Heinen-Poulin-Nylander Devane (rotating in on third line) |
Forwards Caggiula-Malkin-Rust Zucker-Zohorna-Archibald Glover-Gruden-Olson Ansons (rotating in) |
Forwards Hallander-Carter-Kapanen McGinn-Blueger-Svejkovsky Andonovski-Frasca-Legare Kalmikov and Houde (rotating in) |
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Defensemen Pettersson-Petry Smith-Ruhwedel Lizotte-Fedun |
Defensemen Dumoulin-Friedman Ouellet-St. Ivany Ortiz-Reinke |
Defensemen Joseph-Letang Belliveau-Rutta Swoyer-McCleary Collins-Maniscalco |
|
Goal DeSmith Gauthier |
Goal Lindberg Tokarski |
Goal Jarry Nappier |
Combinations of note, at least for me. Marcus Pettersson and newcomer Jeff Petry. It just feels like a tandem that might work well. In fact I wrote an article about it back in July.
I’m also intrigued by the Corey Andonovski–Jordan Frasca–Nathan Legare unit. Andonovski and Legare play long pants hockey. Frasca out-goaled fourth overall pick Shane Wright last season at Kingston (42-32) as an overage junior and could be a diamond in the rough.
Former first-rounder Samuel Poulin seems hell bent on establishing himself as a bona fide big-leaguer. And Raivis Ansons has drawn raves from director of player development Tom Kostopoulos.
Among my personal favorites? I’m pulling hard for the “Big Z,” Radim Zohorna, and Mark Friedman (pictured above), who according to Vensel was his usual rabid-dog self today.
