A team of Detroit B-Listers pretty much their way with our Penguins Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, prevailing by a 7-4 count.
Not exactly the way you want to begin the preseason in earnest, especially since the black-and-gold was well-populated with A-Listers, including Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell and Egor Chinakhov.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
- Nicholas Robertson scored his first of what hopefully will be many goals in a Pens uni at 7:19 of the first period, a shorty and a pretty one at that. The newcomer also added a second assist on Rakell’s goal at 12:22 of the second period.
- While we’re talking RikRak, his short-side marker from a sharp angle below the right circle was a thing of beauty.
- Sam Girard showed nifty skills while setting up the goal, puttin’ on the ritz (or more moves than Mae West) in Mike Lange-speak.
- A slick tic-tac-toe passing play from the Ruck Twins, Markus and Liam, set up Rutger McGroarty in the waning minutes. Liam also assisted on Kaeden Korczak’s uncontested wrister from the high slot at 6:55 of the final frame. Mikhail Ilyin had the primary helper.
- Korczak picked up an assist on Robertson’s tally and finished with four hits.
- Ilya Solovyov somehow managed to escape the wreckage a plus-2 on the night (so did the Rucks). The burly 229-pounder played a strong all-around game.
- Declan Carlile stood up for Crosby during an early scrum and later got involved with Wilmer Skoog. Even had a few choice words for the Wings’ bench.
THE LOWLIGHTS
- Not to kick a guy when he’s down (I’m sure he feels bad enough already), but Dear Lord was Arturs Šilovs awful. Our likely 1A netminder yielded seven goals on only 23 shots (for a crispy .696 save percentage), all the while serving up pizzas hot ‘n’ bubbly from the oven. (Translation, he gave up a ton of juicy rebounds.) Somewhere my colleague, Other Rick, an avowed proponent of a Sergei Murashov–Joel Blomqvist goalie tandem, must be smiling a knowing smile.
- A raspberry to coach Dan Muse for not yanking Šilovs when it was obvious his goalie didn’t have it.
- The defense didn’t exactly bathe itself in glory, either. The Wings Mason Appleton bulled his way through paperweight prospect Tomas Galvas as if the kid were vapor to score the Wings’ go-head goal. Galvas finished a team-worst minus-3. Girard and Finn Harding were minus-2 each.
- Physicality, or lack of. Carlile, Korczak and Solovyov each got involved at various stages and rookie Atley Calvert delivered six hits. Which turned out to be three more than the rest of the Pens’ forwards combined. Following the game, the Ol’ Two-Niner, Phil Bourque, called the team out for its collective passivity.
The good news? There’s nowhere to go but up (hopefully).
Snip, Snip
The Pens trimmed nine players from their roster today. Defensemen David Breazeale, Tyler Duke, Brent Johnson, Ryan Mast, Maleek McGowan and Broten Sabo have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Goalie Taylor Gauthier was placed on waivers for the purpose of being sent to the Baby Pens.
Forward Carter Sanderson was reassigned to the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL. The aforementioned Galvas was returned to Liberec Bili Tygri HC in his native Czechia.
Rick,
Preseason games are not neccessarily a true indicator of the what the season will bring. Their are a lot of players playing in those games that never will make it to the NHL on both sides of the puck; that is the biggest reason I get frustrated with what has happened in Pgh over these last several season from Sullivan to now Muse. Playing a a high end prospect on a line with other Prospects is either a stupid thing to do or a direct attempt to justify ignoring that prospect. Playing Zonnon with Calvert and McGroarty is asinine, if you really want to see what Zonnon can do. You don’t ask a prospect, even a high end prospect to carry dead weight. As much as we might wish it otherwise, the chances of Calvert making the NHL are not good; the chances McGroarty really makes are only slightly better.
Reading anything into the success of the Rucks may also be misleading. The most common opponent they skated against was Jesse Kiiskinen, not exactly a candidate for the all rookie team this season. The other two forwards with top TOI against Liam Ruck, Theo Rochette and Noah Dower Nilsson are not household names.
It was good to see Carlile stand up for the team, but if he makes the team and is the only one doing that, that isn’t much better than those pathetic late 70s early 80s teams where Russ Anderson or Soupy Campbell had to fight an entire Bruins team while the rest of the Pens sat back and watched.
As for Silovs, no I am not gloating. Even when I ran into that Uber – Silovs fan we know (the one who argued with us that the Pens should trade for Elias Pettersson) did I show any sign of satisfaction; mainly because I would rather be wrong since Dubas and Muse seem prepared to die on this hill. Rather than gloat, I just wish the team’s brass would finally learn what a real NHL Goalie looks like.
I have more hope for Muse to understand what Goaltending takes – Dubas has a long, long history of absolute ignorance on assessing Goalie or Defensemen talent dating to his Toronto days.
As for the Team’s cuts and going along with your topic of Muse leaving Silovs in for the entire game while condeming Gauthier to sit and watch the Dubas’ Folly implode like the Hindenberg, waiving Gauthier was a mindless continuation of poor personnel decisions by our HoHO. I hate to say it, but for Gauthier’s sake I hope someone claims him off our roster so he gets a chance to really play for a team that has a clue about Goaltending. (The same goes for Blomqvist – I hope he gets traded so he doesn’t waste his career here)