The Penguins went to Detroit with the following crew that’s road worthy for a preseason game. The home Red Wings don’t dress their absolute best, but there’s still plenty of talent to work with tonight. The beginning of the game looked like it would be a struggle, Detroit was owning the puck and recorded the […]
The Penguins went to Detroit with the following crew that’s road worthy for a preseason game.
The home Red Wings don’t dress their absolute best, but there’s still plenty of talent to work with tonight.
The beginning of the game looked like it would be a struggle, Detroit was owning the puck and recorded the first five shots on goal. The Pens could barely break out of their zone with possession, let alone touch the puck outside of it. Out of no where, a turnover saw Avery Hayes touch the puck for Ryan Shea to take off. Shea made a nice drive up the ice and laid a perfect pass over for Ben Kindel. Kindel had his opponent beaten going up the ice and got a nice shot away. 1-0 Pens.
The Pens got another in the second period, Philip Tomasino fired a hard centering pass that looked like it clicked off Tommy Novak, then bounced off the leg of the driving Filip Halander and Novak was able to slam it home as he flew by the net. 2-0.
Detroit spoils Tristan Jarry’s shutout bid with 3:40 to go in the third. Danton Heinen failed on a clear earlier and then Logan Pietila swung his skate and missed to breakup a pass, leaving a player all alone in front. 2-1 game.
The Red Wings pull their goalie but can’t score before the clock runs out.
Some more thoughts:
- Kindel’s goal was a beauty, skating is often a knock on him but he had no problem scooting up the ice and staying ahead of Alex Debrincat, whose no slouch on his skates. Straight line speed is one aspect of skating but it goes to show in a game situation that players with drive can elevate and perform and maybe also that reputations from internet scouting reports don’t always ring true just because it gets repeated a lot secondhand. On other thing about Kindel there, while it was a nice finish, it might be more notable that Kindel started the play by hawking down what would have been a clearing attempt going as a turnover. One part of the scouting that is true is that Kindel is good in all three zones to skate back like he did and get in position to start the play. You saw that in a ton of his highlights in junior where before the goal there was something good Kindel did in his own end, and you’re starting to see that in the NHL, albeit in preseason format.
- The play by Shea in that sequence was really encouraging too. He was confident and showed no hesitation getting up the ice and setup the goal. It’s not like Shea is known for his wheels or playmaking either (three assists in 70 career NHL games) so take it with a grain of salt that he’s unlocked some new area, but it can’t be a bad thing to have a good night. The display of confidence and making the play is a positive sign for where he’s at right now.
- To triple note on that first goal: Hayes has made a couple of subtle, nifty little plays this preseason – tonight’s touch to Shea on the Kindel goal was reminiscent of the pass Hayes made to Crosby in the prior game against Columbus. The more you watch him the more you notice little inputs like that. The pass itself isn’t that incredible, but Hayes set it up by feinting like he was going to skate the puck out with speed, causing the defender to stride towards him. That opened up the middle of the ice for Shea to step right into the pass. Whether or not Hayes has shown enough to make the NHL team out of camp is a big question with an uncertain answer from the outside looking in, but Hayes has certainly done enough to be worthy of having his name in the conversation. You could tell me he’s one of the top-12 forwards in the organization right now and I wouldn’t protest. If the numbers or the mix doesn’t work out right off the bat, at this rate it seems like a sure bet Hayes will be a callup to the NHL at some point this season and make his debut, at the very least.
- Interesting usage with Filip Hallander and Sam Poulin playing with two NHL caliber forwards (which isn’t to imply anything about PTO Robby Fabbri’s future, simply to say he has been an NHL player for a long time). Did either of the more unestablished players stand out? Can’t say they really did in a hugely positive way, Hallander had a nice rush up the ice in the second period and pass to Novak and got an assist for being in the right place at the right time (and upon second watch, got a very nice touch on the recovery to eke the puck down towards Novak); Poulin looked decent with some PK time. If nothing else tonight put some more information on tape for the decision makers to consider in a better way than Valtteri Puustinen and Boko Imama taking avoidable minor penalties.
- Tough to analyze defensive defensemen but liked the night from Alexander Alexeyev. Doesn’t seem like he’s gotten a very deep dive or had much of an inside track for an NHL spot this camp (Alexeyev was paired with rookie Chase Pietila tonight, for instance) but Alexeyev can snap the puck and was holding the offensive blue line a few times. He’s not a tremendous player or top-4 talent or anything, but I thought he had a good showing, poised and took care of his business.
- At the other end of the spectrum, if Danton Heinen is truly competing for a spot, tonight couldn’t have helped his cause. Didn’t impress and he failed with the puck on his stick in his own end and it ended up in the net a few seconds later. Less the glaring mistake, a lot could to be said for Fabbri too, who of course truly is needing a great camp to stick. Not the end of the world to not stand out in a singular game but time is starting to run short. If this game counts for anything, it’s got to be Hayes stock up and Heinen stock down. How much emphasis will be placed on one night is up for debate.
- Sticking with veterans that we haven’t opined that much about; Dumba has looked completely neutral in the preseason. Not necessarily bad, not good. Do kind of worry when the competition ratchets up to regular season speed, does he fall behind and limitations start to show at that point? Feels like a real worry. You can tell as a veteran he’s getting into gear himself and working off the heavy legs
- Novak’s had an oddly quiet preseason, scoring one tonight should help get things rolling or the confidence up at least. As seen on Dave Molinari’s twitter, Novak lost the first eight faceoffs he took and ended up only winning 2/16 draws on the night…I do wonder if Novak is going to be a center for the long term or would benefit from a switch to the wing (which could bolster the chances of natural center Tristan Broz, who didn’t play tonight but ought to be in consideration for where the pieces fit). Not to throw huge red flags based off one performance, just an observation to kick around.
- Another observation that’s more situational than telling is that through two periods the Pens had 15 shots on goal. Only nine of them came from forwards (and three forwards in Kindel, Tomasino and Novak each had two SOG to make up the bulk of that low number). There wasn’t a ton of forward talent on the ice which explains that well enough that the problem gets solved when the skilled players get in there, but that paints the picture well about not too many standing out tonight.
- Don’t look now but…Tristan Jarry! Good game from him, wasn’t peppered with shots and he got bailed out by the crossbar from Patrick Kane with a wide open look, but all things considered Jarry did everything he needed to do in his first full game, didn’t have much of a chance on the goal against and stopped the rest. Not to say many will take a ton of confidence in him until he performs like this when it counts, but looking sharp in the preseason is preferable to the alternative.
The chart matched a lot of what the eye test said; Kindel, Shea, Hayes and Koivunen, who we didn’t touch on since there weren’t any singular big moments, were great. Maybe I’m too hard on Dumba, and frankly this was a friendlier view of St. Ivany’s night than I would have given. Fabbri was OK but down the line relative to others since he didn’t do a lot to move the needle. Then down the line some struggles for Heinen, Pietila, Puustinen and Imama – no disputes here.
One more preseason game down, and just two to go! The Pens will regroup briefly in Pittsburgh tomorrow before a group of them head up to Buffalo on Wednesday night.
Category: General Sports
