On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Penguins were set to square off against the New York Rangers for the second time in three games to start the season. They got the best of Mike Sullivan’s Rangers the first time around in a 3-0 opening night shutout.
This game – even if it started out pretty promising – did not have the same result.
Trailing just 1-0 after the first period on a shorthanded goal by Mika Zibanejad and outshooting the Rangers, 9-4, the Penguins opened up the second period strong, as Ben Kindel scored his first career NHL goal to tie the game. But the Penguins allowed five unanswered goals to the Rangers and were defeated by a score of 6-1.
Even after Adam Fox scored to put the Rangers back in front, 2-1, the Penguins didn’t lose much momentum. However, it all seemed to go downhill after a missed holding call that saw Penguins’ forward Bryan Rust – who returned to the lineup Saturday after missing the first two games to injury – get hauled to the ice, and then a subsequent hooking penalty by Kindel resulted in a Rangers’ power play goal by Will Cuylle.
“Got on the wrong side of the puck, kind of a lazy penalty in the o-zone,” Kindel said. “So, something I definitely want back and will definitely learn from it. I can’t be costing my team like that. They scored a big goal on the power play there, and it kind of changed the momentum of the game, so just going to learn from those things.”
From there, New York took over. And, unfortunately, the special teams woes didn’t end there for the Penguins.
With less than five minutes to go in the second, the Penguins took a bench penalty for Too Many Men, and Fox lit the lamp for the second time in the game to put the Rangers up, 4-1. In the third period, Matt Rempe and Taylor Raddysh added goals for the Rangers, and they walked out winners.
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Just one game after Pittsburgh Penguins’ 19-year-old defensive prospect Harrison Brunicke tallied his first goal in the National Hockey League on a beauty of a wrist shot off the rush, the other teenager on the Penguins’ roster did the same thing.
When Rust was asked what went wrong in the second period and on special teams, he chalked it up to the Penguins’ lack of response in the detail of their game.
“We didn’t handle it well,” Rust said. “We let in one goal there, and I just think we just kind of lost our details on both the kill and the PP.”
It wasn’t a pretty one, but there were some positives and negatives. Here are some thoughts and observations:
– There were few standout players in this game after the first 20 minutes of play, but I do want to start with Connor Dewar. He did not register a goal, but he tied for the team lead in shot attempts and was very noticeable.
In the first period, he generated a few scoring chances on his own. On one occasion, he forced a turnover at center ice and brought the puck into the offensive zone himself, skating around a defender before getting a shot off. He was cycling well down low, good on forecheck as per usual, and finding the net-front with regularity.
I quite liked Dewar’s game in the pre-season, and that has – so far – carried into the regular season.
– Probably the player who stood out positively the most in this game, however, was Filip Hallander.
He was everywhere. The 25-year-old forward was generating chances down low for his linemates, crashing the net, using his vision and playmaking skills to find the open man and get creative. The puck just kept finding him, and he kept delivering on creating space and generating chances.
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On Thursday night against the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins’ rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke became the first teenager to score a goal for the Penguins since Daniel Sprong in 2015.
If anyone else deserved a goal Saturday, it was Hallander. He’s one of the hardest workers on this team, and if he keeps playing like this, that hard work is going to be rewarded.
– Speaking of deserving goals, what else can I say about Kindel and Harrison Brunicke?
Kindel did take that hooking penalty in the second period, but – that aside – he turned in another solid performance. His goal was a thing of beauty, as it certainly isn’t easy to snipe a longer-range wrister past one of the best goaltenders in the league in Igor Shesterkin. And, not only that, Kindel also capitalized off of a neutral zone turnover by the Rangers, and he carried the puck into the zone and scored off the rush.
His 200-foot game is really showing up for the Penguins, and he continues to get better.
“The offensive side, I think it’s been there pretty consistently,” head coach Dan Muse said. “This guy has got a lot of poise with the puck, puts himself in great areas, then defensively, I think it’s an area he’s continued to get better. He’s young. There’s going to be the details of the game, there’s going to be little things that constantly are coming up, as they should, and I think it’s just going to be good for just continuing to learn the game at this level.
“It’s different. This is the highest league in the world. So, while there’s been a lot of good, there’s also plenty of learning that should be taking place and will be taking place.”
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TAKE A BOW, KID 🙌
As far as Brunicke, it wasn’t a flawless game, but it was another good one. And there was a moment when the 19-year-old stood up for a teammate, too.
Near the end of the second period, Rangers’ rookie forward Noah Laba took Penguins’ forward Blake Lizotte down against the boards in front of the Rangers’ bench. Brunicke took exception and went after Laba, which did make the Penguins shorthanded again to start the third period.
However, the gesture didn’t go unnoticed by teammates.
“It’s huge. That kid is out there defending his teammate,” Rust said. “He isn’t scared to go in there. He isn’t scared to do something for the team, and I think that takes a lot of character.”
They’re both supremely talented players with elite hockey sense, and the returns in production are already starting to show. If they keep this up, they need to stay. Period. They’re getting better with each and every game, and they’ve earned it up to this point.
– Onward to the negative, I have not been particularly inspired by the play of Caleb Jones through three games. He is, by far, recording the lowest ice time per game among Penguins’ defensemen, and, speed aside, he just isn’t bringing much.
Matt Dumba and Connor Clifton – both right-shot defensemen – worked a bit on their off-sides during the pre-season, and they have both played their off-sides at some point. It’s probably about time to give one of those guys a game, anyway. The left side could benefit from some experimentation.
– Kris Letang was injured during this game and only played one shift in the third period. Muse said Letang is being evaluated for an injury, but he did not specify the type.
This will be an interesting situation to monitor, especially since the Penguin head out West next week. If he goes to injured reserve, the Penguins already have eight defensemen, and – as mentioned before – they have two right-shot defensemen who have been scratched for the first three games.
My feeling is that they may end up recalling a forward instead of another d-man, should Letang be out longer-term.
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#LetsGoPens head coach Dan Muse said defenseman Kris Letang is being evaluated for an injury.
– After two outstanding games, Erik Karlsson was not particularly good in this one. Like everyone else, he started out well in the first 20 – aside from failing to take away the pass on the shorthanded two-on-one that led to Zibanejad’s goal – and fell apart afterwards.
He wasn’t even credited with any giveaways in this game. It just looked like the life got sucked out of him in the second, and he began to get more hesitant with the puck, along with the rest of his teammates.
– On a positive note, it was a warm reception for Sullivan in Pittsburgh. The Penguins showed a nice tribute on the video board during the first TV timeout, and he received a standing ovation.
Sullivan has never been known to show emotion, but he got a little teary-eyed while this was happening. As the winningest coach in franchise history – and after 10 years in Pittsburgh – he deserved the ovation that he got.
Really nice tribute by the Penguins and by the Pittsburgh faithful.
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