I gotta tell ya. The first dozen minutes of last night’s contest with the Red Wings constituted about as ugly a display of hockey as I’ve witnessed…well…since Wednesday’s humiliating loss to the Rangers.
Talk about hard on the eyes!
Woof.
In a word, the Penguins were atrocious. We couldn’t generate any offense or sustained pressure. We were so bad defensively, it almost appeared we were playing out of position on purpose. Meanwhile, the speedy Wings made us look like so many black-and-gold pylons super-glued to the ice.
One guy held us in the game…rookie netminder Joel (pronounced Yoel) Blomqvist.
I confess, when pain-in-the-you-know-what Alex DeBrincat beat the kid just 3:46 into the game, visions of his shaky first preseason outing came flooding into my brain. No way Blomqvist would hold up, especially given the lack of defensive support. I mean, the Wings had a guy perpetually open to the left of our net for at least the first 10 minutes it seemed.
But hold up he did. Joel made several big huge stops to keep us in the hunt, 12 in all through a turbulent opening frame. His clutch goaltending gave us a chance to settle and finally, thank the dear Lord, get to our game.
After knotting the score at 1-1 on a lucky bounce goal credited to newcomer Anthony Beauvillier but actually scored by Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot, we proceeded to blow the game open with a three-goal flurry early in the second period before cruising to a 6-3 victory.
Some thoughts.
Mike Sullivan tweaked his top two lines, bumping Beauvillier from right to left wing on Sidney Crosby’s line and elevating Rickard Rakell to the starboard slot. Drew O’Connor moved to right wing alongside Evgeni Malkin and Michael Bunting.
The results?
Beauvillier hustled his fanny off and notched our first two goals, with Sid assisting on both. O’Connor scored our third goal and had a second overturned, while Geno collected two assists, including No. 800 of his illustrious career.
I especially liked the look of the Bunting-Malkin-O’Connor combo. The trio displayed a ton of drive and tenacity. Best of all, Geno seemed energized by his linemates. If we can keep the big guy dialed in and moving north-and-south with a purpose, it’ll be a huge boon to our attack.
Speaking of line combinations, I thought our fourth line of Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass and Noel Acciari acquitted themselves well. On a team that doesn’t pass the puck especially well, Hayes’s pinpoint feeds stand out.
On this night he was a goal scorer, the recipient of a snappy little backhand pass off the sideboards from Glass.
As I’d mentioned in my season preview, I do believe our depth scoring will improve and perhaps even give foes some headaches.
Although we got goals from Marcus Pettersson and Erik Karlsson (a power-play marker, no less!), our defense was still a bit shaky at times. You could argue that our second and third pairings are still trying to learn each other.
Fortunately, Blomqvist was there to cover up and make the key saves when it mattered. In the process, earning his first win on…appropriately enough…the 21st anniversary of Marc-Andre Fleury’s first start back in 2003.
We’ll call it “the first Yoel.”
