Takeaways from another Red Wings/Penguins preseason game

The Pens and Red Wings finish up a stretch of playing or attempting to play for the third time in four days.

The Penguins and Detroit Red Wings just can’t seem to get away from one another, or so it seems thanks to a postponed game on Saturday kept the two together for a couple extra days. After gearing up for that misfire, PIT/DET locked up last night. And again tonight. Funny enough, it won’t be long until they see each other again. The Penguins’ second game of the regular season, and the Red Wings’ season-opener is one and the same on October 10th.

The Penguins trotted out a home-worthy preseason lineup with many of their big guns making a second appearance this year, sprinkled along the way with a couple of intriguing young players along with them.

The visiting Red Wings opted for more of a bare bones lineup, considering that many of their top players participated in last evening’s contest.

The first period featured two minor penalties for each team, and zero goals. That allowed for extensive practice on both special teams groups. See below for extended thoughts on how the Pens’ power play looks different so far.

Sidney Crosby jumped out for a breakaway off a nice pass from Bryan Rust. Crosby tried his customary quick five-hole shot but it was stopped.

Pittsburgh scored the first goal of the game and it was a major credit to the play of 18-year old Harrison Brunicke. He was comfortable with the puck stepping up from the blueline and the whole building heard Evgeni Malkin behind the net barking for a pass. Brunicke fed Malkin and went right to the net. Malkin hit him with a perfect saucer pass but Ville Husso made a nice pad save on Brunicke’s shot. But Husso couldn’t do anything with the rebound and Rickard Rakell was there to slam it home for a 1-0 Pens lead.

However, Detroit would respond quickly. Matt Grzelcyk got caught in space and stepped up to Amadeus Lombardi (what a name!) Lombardi made it look easy skating right around Grzelcyk like he wasn’t there and fired a high shot past Tristan Jarry’s blocker to tie the game 1-1.

The game bogged down a bit until the Red Wings scored with 2:49 left in the game. Sidney Crosby got greedy (!!!) making a slow pass through the middle of the ice that Detroit picked off and Nate Danielson got behind the defense and scored on the rush.

Maybe Sid just didn’t want to work OT in the meaningless game, can’t fault him there.

The Pens come to life and push for an equalizer before time expires. Pressure from Malkin and Rakell draws a penalty. The Pens call a timeout with 1:49 left for David Quinn to draw up a 6v4 power play (with Jarry pulled for another attacker). Rakell hit a post on a hard shot from distance. Bryan Rust had another chance to muscle one in from the crease but Husso and the Red Wing defense held strong enough to narrowly keep it out.

Time would run out before they could get one in.

Some other thoughts to wrap it up:

• The power play can only be truly analyzed in games like today when relevant players are out there. And, boy, it does look different. The pieces are similar and they are mostly even in the same positions you know but there’s some added life in the Pittsburgh power play. Puck movement is crisp and frequent, and not just two players passing the puck slowly back and forth on the perimeter. Bodies get in motion, shots are sought. They actually are breaking down the opponent’s PK structure before looking for the cross-ice passes that can be dangerous when it has a chance of working by drawing sticks and bodies out of the way.
• Every power play ebbs and flows as confidence and momentum grows and wanes but there is a different spirit and pep about them now. This isn’t a bold prediction for a big turnaround, but it looks much healthier than last year, and hopefully that holds. The power play didn’t score tonight, though Malkin and Rakell both hit posts and Crosby had a couple looks shooting and passing it around.
• That said, at 5v5 is Crosby still going to opt for a cross-ice perfect pass over an available shot attempt? Of course.
• Regular season speed is a notch up from the exhibition games but Harrison Brunicke has done nothing to suggest he can’t play at the NHL level. Seriously impressive stuff for him. Where that goes from here? Who can say at this point. The need or opportunity to at least get a cameo at the beginning of the year is likely directly tied to the health status of Erik Karlsson. Regardless of the short term outcome, the promise of the future is very bright from Brunicke, a true revelation in his first NHL training camp.
• On the other side, the warning signs about how defensively feasible a Grzelyck-Letang pairing could be is already starting to show over the course of a couple preseason games. The Pens don’t have many good options for the spot next to Letang right now but Grzelcyk has a lot of settling in still to do. Grzelyck is definitely an NHL caliber player but is probably better suited at this point for a sheltered third pair role, a luxury that the Pens don’t have to offer him.
• Odd type of game for Jarry to play. His team was much better, and as a result shots about mid-way through the game were 21-6 in favor of Pittsburgh. Doesn’t leave for much to evaluate on him, but fortunately Jarry was able to play the whole game, which is all that matters.
• A player who wasn’t as lucky on the injury front was Vasily Ponomarev. Ponomarev exited the game in the middle of the second period and would not return after crashing into the boards. Reset the ‘number of days without an injury’ from 1 (Nedeljkovic) back to zero. Ponomarev dealt with a knee injury with Carolina and a high ankle sprain with the Pens last season, he can’t catch an injury break lately. Hopefully this shoulder/arm one isn’t a bad one.
• In the FWIW bin, barely noticed that Cody Glass or Ville Koivunen played. Both were in small TOI roles (limited further by dropping to 11 forwards once Ponomarev left), which goes a ways towards giving that context. As far as younger players went, another nice and quiet game for Owen Pickering that included a big hit near the boards. Rutger McGroarty didn’t have a huge impact but stood out with a few shot assist creations and a nice block shot + clear on the PK.

That’s it for Detroit (for nine days until the next meeting in the regular season, anyways). Pittsburgh wraps up the exhibition with games on Thursday at Columbus and on Friday hosting the Blue Jackets.