The week ahead: Building on strong first impression from the young guys
Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen are going to get some big tests this week for the Pittsburgh Penguins as the level of competition increases.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had a very different look on Sunday evening in their 1-0 win over the Ottawa Senators, getting big minutes from both Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, their top forward prospects. The duo was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday morning following some strong play and big developments in the AHL this season, and they were both thrust right into top-six roles. McGroarty played alongside captain Sidney Crosby, while Koivunen played on a makeshift second line next to Rickard Rakell.
The first impressions: For the most part, promising.
Not only did the Penguins beat a playoff team, 1-0, they also seemed to have a little more life and energy injected into them with the new, younger faces. Especially as the game went on and they started to tilt the ice more — at least from a scoring chance and shot attempt perspective — in the third period.
McGroarty played 16 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey with the Penguins out-attempting the Senators by a 2-1 margin a 60-40 expected goal split. Individually, he had five shot attempts, three shot attempts and two high-danger chances.
Koivunen had a similar stat line with 15 minutes, four shot attempts, two shots on goal and one high-danger chance.
It may not have produced any actual goals, but it was a strong start to get a taste of NHL acton and NHL speed. Especially against a good team that is going to the playoffs.
That is also setting the stage for what is ahead for these two guys the rest of the week when they will be playing two more playoff teams in the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars.
It starts with Wednesday’s game at St. Louis against a Blues that enters the week having won nine games in a row and is 17-3-3 in its past 23 games going back to February 1. They are one of the hottest teams in the NHL and have not only climbed back into the playoff race, they are now very much in the driver’s seat for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Oddly enough, one of their three regulation losses over that stretch was against the Penguins.
They are going to have a big challenge having to go into St. Louis for this game, especially when the Blues could potentially be on a 10-game winning streak if they beat the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the week.
The level of competition does not get any easier on Saturday when they have to visit the Dallas Stars.
Dallas is one of the NHL’s best teams, is also playing great hockey right now, and is a bonafide Stanley Cup contender. The Stars already had one of the best and deepest rosters in the league before the trade deadline, and then went and loaded up with Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci and the biggest piece of them all, Mikko Rantanen. When fully healthy it is an absolutely loaded roster and has a legitimate chance to win the whole thing this season.
That is going to be a great test and a great early measuring stick for where these guys are and what they can do.
The week concludes with the second half of a back-to-back in Chicago against the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that is really loading up with young players and currently has six of Kyle Davidson’s first-round draft picks in the lineup.
In terms of wins or losses, I do not have much expectation for the Penguins this week. They will be underdogs in both St. Louis and Dallas, and nobody should go in with heavy expectations for them to win much. The most important thing I want to see is for McGroarty and Koivunen to hold their own and build on the games they had on Sunday against the Senators.
Keep getting pucks on net.
Keep creating chances.
Maybe find the score sheet and get some production.
Even though this is only going to be about a 10-game sample size for both players the rest of the way, it is still going to be important for them to get a taste of real NHL action to not only see what they can do, but to also get an idea of what they need to work on going into the offseason. It should be expected for them to have regular roles in Pittsburgh next season right from the start. They need to see what they need to improve on. They are going to get a great opportunity this week to show where they are.