During Monday’s pre-season opener against the Buffalo Sabres, everything seemed to go right for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Unfortunately, that was not the case on Tuesday.
After a 4-1 victory in game one, the Penguins dropped their second game of the pre-season to the Detroit Red Wings, 7-4, in a game that went downhill quickly and sharply. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard led the way for Detroit with two goals, while Penguins’ goaltender Arturs Silovs had a night to forget, allowing seven goals on 23 Red Wings’ shots.
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Although the goaltending was subpar in this one, the team as a whole began to fall apart in the second period before surrendering four goals in the third.
“I thought we gave up way too much tonight,” head coach Dan Muse said. “We have more games coming up, we have more practice time. Arty showed last year, too, what he can do in this league. So, it’s not like we’re suddenly forgetting about that. He’s a guy whose game came a long way just last year, and I believe it’s going to continue to come a long way moving forward.”
The Penguins opened up the scoring in this one on a first-period penalty kill, when defenseman Ilya Solovyov found Nick Robertson streaking down the right side. Robertson used his speed and edgework to beat the defender one-on-one and cut across the front of the net, burying the puck blocker-side and giving the Penguins the 1-0 lead.
Brandsegg-Nygard responded within the final two minutes of the opening frame with his first goal, and Mason Appleton and Axel Sandin-Pellikka scored 31 seconds apart before the five-minute mark of the second period to put Detroit ahead, 3-1. Rickard Rakell cut the deficit to one in the latter half of the period on a nice feed from Sam Girard, and 3-2 was the score going into second intermission.
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That’s when the wheels fell off the wagon. A little more than five minutes in, Brandsegg-Nygard scored his second to make it 4-2, and although Kaedan Korczak responded with a snipe from the right point a few minutes later, Pittsburgh never really took back control of the game. Consecutive goals by Ondrej Becher, Wilmer Skoog, and Jesse Kiiskinen sealed the Penguins’ fate, even with a late goal by Rutger McGroarty off a nice give-and-go with Markus Ruck.
Here are some takeaways from game two of the Penguins’ pre-season:
– Yes, it’s only the pre-season, and everyone is just getting warmed up for regular season action.
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But this was not a good performance by Silovs in any way.
Yes, he earned that 1A spot with his outstanding performance against the Philadelphia Flyers in Round 1 last postseason, and yes, he will begin the season on the NHL roster. Muse basically said as much during his postgame presser, when he reiterated that Silovs’s performance from last season cannot be forgotten about when evaluating the situation in goal this season.
However, given how well Sergei Murashov and Joel Blomqvist have performed in the pre-season up to his point, Silovs needs to make sure a performance like this doesn’t follow him into the regular season. There’s a giant target on his back, and two young, promising goaltenders won’t be relenting anytime soon.
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– I wrote two summers ago that the Penguins should pursue Robertson (this one, anyway). And, again, it’s only the pre-season, so everything must be taken with a grain of salt.
But I really like what I’m seeing from him so far in this camp. He’s easily been one of the standouts, and he looks like a natural fit on both the penalty kill unit and on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Rakell.
His speed is a huge factor, but he can shoot the puck, too. And his defensive awareness seems to be a bit better than what waas advertised when he came over from the Toronto Maple Leafs this summer.
“You saw a lot of what he’s shown already throughout trainimg camp,” Muse said of Robertson’s game. “Just the speed, the tenacity, the ability to hunt pucks. I thought that [the shorthanded goal] was a good example. He makes good defensive reads, and we wanted to get him some time here early on and get to see him on the penalty kill. And I thought – obviously, the shorthanded goal was nice to see – but, also, just from what we’ve seen so far, he’s shown the ability to make those reads defensively.
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“We know he’s going to work. I think just that speed, the quickness, the tenacity he plays with is obviously a major factor and a big part of his game.”
I’ve seen several others say this at this point, but he reminds me a bit of Pascal Dupuis as a complementary piece on that line. His forechecking and speed are legit, but I also think there is a bit higher upside in terms of goal-scoring.
We’ll see how things progress into the season, but I think this could be a really good pickup for the Penguins.
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– I thought the third line of Rutger McGroarty, Bill Zonnon, and Atley Calvert got some great looks early on. Their game faded a bit as the team’s overall game faded later, but overall, they were pretty solid.
It was nice to see McGroarty notch that goal at the end, too. I’m not sure there is space for him on the NHL roster to start the season, and I’d like for him to start showing more in other aspects of the game. But that goal, although meaningless, had to feel good.
– Speaking of which, the Rucks looked really good on that McGroarty goal, too. Liam – notching his second helper of the night – forced a turnover along the wall and fed it to McGroarty in the slot. McGroarty was decisive in getting the puck over the Markus on the right side, and Markus fed it right back for a nice finish.
Honestly, I thought both twins looked pretty good in this one. It’s always interesting to see how newly drafted prospects look in NHL game action during the pre-season, and they didn’t really look out of place for it being their first NHL tilt.
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Individually, I actually thought Liam looked right at home on that second power play unit, and he made some cerebral offensive plays to help generate chances throughout the night. Markus could stand to work on his skating a bit, but he was also attacking the offensive zone and made a few nice reads in the defensive zone, too.
Overall, it was a good first outing for both. They’re likely bound for Medicine Hat – whether that’s at the same time or at different times during camp – but they looked good in their first taste of NHL action.
– I really like how Sam Girard has looked throughout the pre-season, and he turned in a nice performance Tuesday. It’s clear as day that he is healthy, he’s got more jump to his step, and he’s a heck of a lot more confident with the puck than he was after the trade last season.
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I like the way he and Korczak tandemed, too. Korczak doesn’t do anything flashy, but he is pretty solid defensively, and he and Girard were reading off each other nicely.
I imagine this will be the Penguins’ third pairing to begin the season.
– I think Solovyov was particularly noticeable in this one. He may not be the most fleet of foot, but his decision-making is quick, and his breakouts are solid. He never holds onto the puck too long, and he’s rarely caught out of position despite his footspeed.
He played well in the games where he saw action last season, and yes, he is going to struggle against some of the league’s faster teams. But he’s a nice option as a seventh defenseman, and unless Jake Livanavage really impresses in his taste of pre-season action – presumably, on Thursday – I think Tuesday’s performace probably won Solovyov that spot.
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– Finally, a note about another new blueliner: Declan Carlile was an angry man in this one.
He took exception to Detroit’s harassment of Crosby throughout the game, and it was only a matter of time before the ticking time bomb in Carlile went off. That finally happened in the third period, when he took it all out on Skoogs and earned a double-minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct, and Brandsegg-Nygard scored his second goal on that four-minute man advantage.
If anything, it’s a good sign that the Penguins appear to have a few guys willing to step in when guys like Crosby are messed with. Carlile doesn’t shy away from that aspect of the game, and it certainly got to a tipping point Tuesday.
“Taking that penalty at the end, I think it was just… I kind of had enough of it throughout the game, and it is what it is,” he said.
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I’d expect a lot of fisticuffs from Carlile this season.
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