Last night’s come-from-behind win over the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena was a night of firsts on many levels.
First win for the Penguins under coach Dan Muse. First goals of the preseason for Connor Dewar, Robby Fabbri and Philip Tomasino. First Pens victory for goalie Arturs Silovs. First cheesy goal allowed by Tristan Jarry.
Oops…how’d that get in there?
To recap, it was basically a battle of AAAA lineups, as both clubs elected to go with mostly irregulars. The visiting Red Wings drew first blood at 13:38 of the opening period when John Leonard, one of their quad-Aers (who happened to score 36 goals in the AHL last season) torched Jarry on a breakaway.
Hard to be critical of Tristan on that one. He was hung out to dry following a jail-break exit by his mates and an egregious turnover in the neutral zone.
However, the second Wings’ tally, a power-play marker with 100 ticks left in the period, was as soft-serve as it gets. The ubiquitous Leonard was again the perpetrator, floating (lobbing, soft-tossing…pick your descriptor) the puck past Jarry from about as far away as possible while still having his skates planted in the offensive zone.
No discernable traffic or screen. Jarry was just flat-out fooled. And we were down, 2-zip.
Fortunately, our Pens displayed plenty of moxie. Connor Dewar cut the Wings’ lead in half at 2:32 of the second period with an absolutely filthy backhander from the slot, courtesy of a nifty setup by Jack St. Ivany. Not known for his physical play, Tomasino reinforced the notion that the Pens would not go quietly when he crashed into Wings’ netminder John Gibson a short time later.
Dewar was again front-and-center early in the third period when he dropped the gloves with the much larger Carson Bantle, who’d delivered an illegal hit to the noggin. Suitably inspired, the Pens knotted the score at 2-apiece at 4:46 when ex-Wing Fabbri took a short pass from Aaron Huglen, stormed to the net and beat Wings backup Michal Postava.
Five minutes later, the Pens snatched their first lead while working with the man advantage, thanks to a slick tic-tac-toe passing play from Tommy Novak to Filip Hållander to Tomasino, who barged through traffic to wire the biscuit past Postava.
At the other end of the ice Silovs, who relieved Jarry midway through the game, held down the fort with a seven-save effort to cinch the “w.”
Puckpourri
Statistically, the contest was pretty much a saw-off, with both clubs launching 20 shots on goal and winning 50 percent of the draws.
The Pens continue to employ a 1-2-2 under Muse, with the option to advance a second forechecker should the opportunity arise. A departure from Mike Sullivan’s aggressive 2-1-2.
Is it too early to voice concerns over the Pens’ goaltending? While Jarry wasn’t dreadful (11 saves on 13 shots) he didn’t exactly inspire confidence, either. It sure doesn’t help that Joel Blomqvist, on the verge of advancing, is out for a month with a lower-body ailment.
Not to fixate on the negative when there are quite a few positives, but my word did Kyle Dubas do a poor job with his initial batch of free-agent signings (Jarry, Ryan Graves, Matt Nieto, etc.).
However, on the flip side of the coin, Dubas’ addition Matt Dumba, for all intents and purposes run out of Dallas on a rail, has performed very well thus far and even flashed his old offensive form. Good news for our beleaguered blue line.
The peppery Fabbri is doing his utmost to earn a contract. Can’t help but root for him.
Novak is pretty much reinforcing his rep as a skilled perimeter player who doesn’t much care for the rigors of mucking and grinding.
Flower Power
So much quality content has been written about Marc-André Fleury’s return, I confess I have little to add except to say this is such a wonderful, heartwarming story and to wish him well.
And, truly, kudos to Dubas for coming up with the idea of bringing Flower back and then making it a reality. Just a first-class move on Kyle’s part, through and through.
How special it truly must be for Marc-André to share the ice one last time with his old buds-in-arms, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, and vice versa.
For some reason, it brings to mind a quote from Fred Shero, Ray’s dad, on the eve of the Flyers’ 1974 Cup triumph.
“Win today, and we walk together forever.”
And so it is with Sid, Geno, Tanger and Flower. The on-ice embodiment of the Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan.
May tonight’s game against the CBJ be every bit as wonderful as everyone is anticipating…and more.
Bonne chance ce soir, Flower!
Snip, Snip
The following 15 players have been assigned to the Baby Pens.
Forwards – Raivis Ansons, Brayden Edwards, Zach Gallant, Max Graham, Jordan Kaplan, Gabe Klassen, Brett Murray, Zach Urdahl
Defensemen – David Breazeale, Tommy Budnick, Kyle Criscuolo, Brent Johnson, Daniel Laatsch, Emil Pieniniemi
Goaltenders – Maxim Pavelenko
RIck,
I would have liked to see Graham, Laatsch, Pieniniemi, and Pavelenko play a little. I get it, it was just a numbers game – and I trust Muse’s judgement better, at this point, then I have trusted Penguins decisions in the past. I guess I will just have to take a road trip up to WBS at some point this season. There will likely be other prospects down there by then.
Rick,
Sorry, but the first GA was soft ice-cream serving as well. I won’t deny that Fabbri screwed up by not hanging back when he could/should have easily seen that both Clifton and Shea were ahead of him, going up ice. Furthermore, Huglen should have carried the puck until someone closed on him and as much as I like Puustinen but his drop pass back to Huglen was poor hockey IQ. Therefore all 6 players screwed up on that play. In the end, Leonard is way below a sniper; his career S% is 6.5% – 6 G out of 93 SOG. There was no one between Jarry and Leonard. Leonard shot from the FO Circle, and once again, like so many times last season, Jarry was lined up on the Shooter’s body, giving away the short side. And Leonard, 6.5% shooter climbed up over Jarry’s blocker. Two bad GA on 13 SOG, but I am not surprised.
Although everyone contributed on that first GA, when a team limits an opponent to just 20 SOG, I really hate to get too upset over one or two errors. That was a time when, even if Leonard was a good shooter, Jarry needed to pick up his teammates.