Latest: Pens/Habs Fallout; Scoring Depth; Bemstrom Acquisition & More Buzz

Key Takeaways from the Penguins 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens Thursday Night

–Jarry Won the Night in first 10 minutes–

Kris Letang might have been the storyline with two goals on Kris Letang bobblehead night but Tristan Jarry won this game in the first 10 minutes. If Jarry was a tad off his game, this one could have gone south quite early on for the Penguins with how out of sync Pittsburgh was defensively. Montreal was buzzing out of the gates with 19 scoring chances and 10 high-danger chances, all 5 vs 5 in the first 20 minutes of play. Jarry went on to make 30 saves in the win, marking the fifth time out of his last six games he has allowed two goals or less. Spearheaded by the head coach, Pittsburgh’s bet on Jarry last summer has paid big dividends. Overall, in the game Pittsburgh was minus-19 in shot attempts (73-54) and minus-10 in scoring chances (34-24).

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Puustinen, O’Connor Shine; Phillips struggles

Second straight game Pittsburgh got that some scoring punch from that second/third tier level forward group. Drew O’Connor might be streaky but he’s young/cheap and the length he plays with on the forecheck and the shooting ability he has off the rush has made an interesting player moving forward for this year and into next season when constructing the roster. Meanwhile, Valtteri Puustinen continues to have moments where maybe it’s time for the coaching staff to stop viewing him as a game-by-game basis type player where you let him go on a run and if he makes a couple mistakes one shift, you put him right back out there.

With the addition of Emil Bemstrom and Mike Sullivan believed to have no interest in moving away from his 4th line makeup of Harkins-Acciari-Carter, it will be interesting to see how much patience the Penguins have with Matthew Phillips in the next stretch of games. Phillips was at 15% in possession vs the Canadiens and the numbers were brutal with Evgeni Malkin. The O’Connor – Malkin – Phillips line was on the ice together for just 1 shot attempt and a whopping 15 against. Very small sample but in 3:39 of ice time, the O’Connor-Malkin-Puustinen line was 11-1 in attempts.

There is word, though the coaching staff particularly Mike Sullivan was high on the acquisition of Phillips and Sullivan saw some Conor To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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MORE BUZZ

— Erik Karlsson had a marvelous offensive game and we’re starting to see him take more chances below the dots with his decision making that made him a points monster last season with San Jose. As some in the organization feel the coaching staff had reigned Karlsson in too much through the first half of the season, there’s been a push from the front [hide] office for Karlsson to be more aggressive and that’s message was given to him after the All-Star break by Kyle Dubas, a source close to the situation says.

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— The fancy stat boys are hating the Emil Bemstrom acquisition in blasting the Penguins for acquiring yet another 4th line forward who doesn’t produce enough. Alex Nylander was not going to be given any more chances by this coaching staff so turning Nylander into a different style player is fine. It’s easy to see why both teams made this move.

It’s not a majority view by any means but early feedback from a To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!