I was rereading some articles about Saturday’s 7-3 preseason shellacking at the hands of an established Sabres squad when a thought struck me.
Isn’t it great…not to mention fun…to have some kids to be excited about?
Rutger McGroarty, Tristan Broz, Ville Koivunen, Vasily Ponomarev, Tanner Howe, Harrison Brunicke to name a few. Goalies Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist, too, the latter’s leaky performance against the Sabres aside.
If it feels like it’s been 100 years since we’ve had such a crop of kids to root for, that’s because for all intents and purposes it has. True, our back-to-back Cup champions featured a healthy splash of youth, including Matt Murray, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl and Scott Wilson.
However, with the notable exceptions of Murray and Guentzel, there was no real buzz or sense of expectation surrounding the others…even Rust. Indeed, they just seemed to emerge from left field…and for the most part faded out just as quickly.
In my mind, you have to go back to the early 2000s to match the excitement surrounding the current crop, when Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, Colby Armstrong, Max Talbot, Tyler Kennedy and the Ryans, Malone and Whitney, all seemed to arrive in one fell swoop. In the process transforming us from bottom feeders to future champions.
It’s difficult to say whether any of the present batch will crack a veteran-laden roster and earn a spot on opening night, the best bet being McGroarty. However, Broz, Koivunen and Ponomarev have all shown well, and any or all could be decent bets to sport the skating Penguin logo before the end of the season.
Regardless, their collective presence sure has spiced things up and added some excitement to the proceedings. Qualities they could bring to the lineup, as well.
Let’s Try That Again
The Pens have announced their lineup for tonight’s rematch with Buffalo at PPG Paints Arena. It’s a little bit more of a veteran group, although the kids will once again be well represented.
Forwards: Rutger McGroarty, Marc Johnstone, Kevin Hayes, Boko Imama, Joona Koppanen, Cody Glass, Sam Poulin, Jonathan Gruden, Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari, Anthony Beauvillier, Tanner Howe, Avery Hayes
Defense: Jack St. Ivany, Ryan Shea, Sebastian Aho, Ryan Graves, Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunicke, Filip Kral
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist
Other Rick’s favorite (kidding), Owen Pickering, will be making his black-and-gold debut. One of my personal favorites, Jack St. Ivany, gets his first taste of game action as well. In the very brief time they were paired together, he and Ryan Graves displayed some chemistry and formed an effective tandem.
Mobile ex-Leaf Filip Kral has impressed in camp thus far.
I’ll be curious to see if the shell-shocked Blomqvist gets another crack at the Sabres…or if hyper-aggressive Boko Imama finds a dance partner (or gets any ice time).
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I am sick to tears of the people talking about Blomqvist's "leaky performance"!!!!
Rick, I challenge you to put the pads on and try to stop those 3 deflections that were tipped by him. You face the 16 shots he faced in the first period and only let in 1 deflection. You face the 8 shots he faced in 5 minutes of the 2nd period, all with players behind your Defense and try and stop even 1. Come on man! stop reading moron Dan Kingerski articles designed to justify Jarry (who Kingerski championed that ridiculous contract). Start putting the blame where it belongs, the skaters in front o him. The skaters that were invisible. I would bet that Blomqvist thought he was still in warm ups with the way Buffalo's team free wheeled through his zone, firing away at will. Only 2 of the Goals ceded by Blomqvist were anything resembling stoppable.
It is kind of hard to get me fired up right now about these Pens. With Sullivan still in charge, my expectations are very low. However, trying to charge Blomqvist with anything when the entire team no-showed him defensively will get a rise out of me, particularly when the complaints come from people who have never tried to play goal and I don't mean deck hockey goal.
Hey Other Rick,
And I thought you'd react to the Pickering comment!
Nobody...at least not I...am accusing Blomqvist of losing that game single-handed. By all accounts the Pens' kiddie korps was in way over their collective heads and our team defense was typically less-than stellar. From what I've read, Mac Hollowell, in particular, was all over the place, which in turn affected his partner, Graves.
The old collapsing domino effect.
However, I stand by what I wrote. Any way you parse it, deflections or no, yielding five goals in under five minutes is leaky. Does that mean the kid's a bum and that he won't develop into a competent NHL goalie? Of course, not. It just means he didn't exactly enjoy an auspicious debut.
Rick
Rick
First, my vitriol is really directed at another site that is still champion Jarry as the Penguins' best goalie.
However, you can stand by your statement if you wish, that is your prerogative.
I would have no problem whatsoever if you say the defense was leaky, but no human being in the world could have stop those deflections. Teams dream up those type of plays for that very reason. The conduction time along the nervous system from the senses to the brain, through the brain for processing, and back out in the form of a motor program to adjust to the deflection is far longer than the flight time of the puck. The only time those plays fail is when the deflection redirects the puck into the center mass of the Goalie.
However, to say Blomqvist was leaky is dead wrong and I can't stress that enough. In the first period, when he was only facing 1 shot on Goal (I don't know how many shots the Sabres' actually took - I haven't seen any Corsi yet) about every 2 minutes, only 1 went past him and that shot was from a shooter in a fairly high danger zone with a half a step on the defender. In the second period he faced 8 shots on goal in 5 minutes. almost 2 shots on goal per minute (Again - I don't know the shots taken on those on Goal). That is ridiculous.
Again, you can do what you want. You stubbornly say Blomqvist was leaky. However, that is poor trouble shooting. If you were in charge with that attitude nothing would change because your focus is on the the wrong factor. Only when you look at the situation logically and objectively and fix the pathetic Defense will this team change.
I don't even blame the players. I don't care that they were rookies going against a veteran lineup in Buffalo. What I witnessed in game 0ne was the same biological waste material that I watched all of last season and the season before that, and for 4 or 5 seasons before that. I watched DOC try in vain on several occasions try and cover for absentee D-men. It is the system that is the problem, not the players. And that is why my expectations are so low for this team. Garbage in - Garbage out.