GAME LEADERS
Phil Kessel | 2 Goals
Kris Letang | Goal, 5 Shots
Derick Brassard | Goal, 3 Shots
Matt Cullen | Goal
Matt Murray | 21 Saves
In what is expected to be their final dress rehearsal before next Thursday night’s opener, the Penguins as a whole had the type of performance you want to see in a 5-1 win over the Sabres on Wednesday night.
Pittsburgh played fast and explosive in beating the Sabres up and down ice in all three zones.
Don’t be mistaken, this was a big-time watered down Sabres lineup that was on the ice at PPG Paints Arena. No Jack Eichel, no Jeff Skinner or no Rasmus Dahlin, amongst others, but for the Penguins encouraging signs from some lines/groupings carried over from practice to Wednesday’s game.
Most notably the Simon-Brassard-Rust line.
Coaches have loved what they’ve seen from the line in practices and there was more to like against the Sabres.
The trio controlled possession all night and seemed to be creating offense every shift.
In 13 minutes together 5-on-5, the Brassard line drove possession at a 90% clip, on the ice for 18 shot attempts for and just 2 against. Scoring chances were 11/0 for the line.
The regular season will obviously tell the story and you should never read a ton into the preseason, but a goal for the Penguins in camp was to get Derick Brasssard to develop a comfort level with his linemates and heading into the season, they’ve accomplished that goal.
Bryan Rust has always been an ideal fit here with Brassard.
Rust has been lights out all camp and it continued against the Sabres. He was all over the ice and as mentioned the other day, he looks even more explosive with his skating.
Dominik Simon secured the third line left wing spot for opening night with his performance against the Sabres, along with the chemistry he’s shown with Brassard over the last week in practices.
Pittsburgh’s top-3 lines are now locked in and the only question marks with the lineup for opening night is the 4th line right wing spot and Justin Schultz’ availability.
Unlike Simon, Daniel Sprong has not gone out and won a roster spot in the top-12 among the forward group. That has been most disappointing for the organization. Sprong was not [hide] terrible vs the Sabres. He worked hard, did some good things away from the puck, but he has just hasn’t impacted games offensively or in any area that he needed to.
The way the coaches have expressed their frustrations publicly with Sprong has also been very interesting, a tactic Mike Sullivan rarely goes in the direction of. Sullivan called Sprong up and down the other day and Mark Recchi after preseason game #2 was pretty blunt in that Sprong did not perform well that night.
Sprong may start the season as the 4th line right winger by default but he hasn’t put himself in position for that to be a long leash by any means.
A Cullen – Sheahan – Grant 4th line is also very much in play.
“I think we’re deeper,” Mike Sullivan said after Wednesday’s game. “We’re certainly deeper this year. When you look at the potential makeup of our 4th line, there’s some pretty good hockey players on that line.”[/hide]
-5ammich, did you do your homework?
“Hey Sam… 2018… one player had 25 primary As.. the other had 15 total and 35 points, name the players
Hint… the first guy is 9th in the NHL since 2010 in primary assists… 9th, in the league… ahead of Joe Thornton ffs lol
FWIW… Crosby is 6th in the NHL in the secondary A in that time frame behind Backstrom, Giroux, Sedin, Keith and Karlsson…
Letang is 8th…”
Simon sucks.
I agree, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on the third line. At least he’s not on Sids line. It’ll be interesting to see if that line can carry over the success into the season.
I think you gotta bring Sprong along similar to how we brought up Jagr. Play on the 3rd line with a good center and then slowly increase his responsibility and move him up into top 6.
Simon is a career minor league/4th liner. Stop with the hustle > skill garbage sullivan!
Crosby seems to think highly of him… I mean he is small and quick which seems to fit the mold of the guys Sid has played with. Whether or not the skill set is NHL caliber is another question but… Sid seems to like his game and that will factor in where he plays this year.
This year pool I’m missing goods RW
Have a lot of Centers one of them is malkin since I get points on penalties power plays and malkin is consistant in that department
Ok…
“Me fail english, that’s unpossible.”
– Ralph Wiggum.
Hey Sam… where is Matthews from?
Game winner assist was a Canadian a player in my pool
Game winner assist… lol… I have that same Canadian and had he clicked on one of the ample chances he had all night it wouldn’t have been an OT finish and he could have had something that’s real… a game winning goal lol
Price hurt yet?
No I think Murray is
We already know this statement is absurdly false… you said “I think” and we all know that’s a significant lie
Because will get the confirmation during caps Vs pens match
Why are you so mad at English?
What a way to start a season bruins 2nd period down 6-0
Fuckk Boston anyway
Now that leafs got tavares and got better on pp
Pens power play specialists have to elevate their pp now
Like how watching DB elevates yours?
What will happen first: Montreal wins another Stanley Cup or Sam the virginal bandwagon is able to post something in English?
Or you will finally watch a full pen’s game without turning off your TV once they are down 1-0
You’re so, so bad at this.
Can I push?
I know some bandwagon’s only started to watch pens since 2016
But that Wilson hit reminded me Cooke hit on savard
This guy continues to shittalk the Pens while blowing Habs players but wants Pens fans to believe they are on some sort of bandwagon lol.
Hey Sam… 2018… one player had 25 primary As.. the other had 15 total and 35 points, name the players
Hint… the first guy is 9th in the NHL since 2010 in primary assists… 9th, in the league… ahead of Joe Thornton ffs lol
FWIW… Crosby is 6th in the NHL in the secondary A in that time frame behind Backstrom, Giroux, Sedin, Keith and Karlsson…
Letang is 8th…
Habs new centre assist
Domi 2 assist
Leafs first game of the season and then have a huge crowd outside watching the game .
If only pens bandwagon fan base Can do that. Oh forgot their season only starts in April
What a coincidence… Montreal’s ends in that same month
Pens should got tatar last year instead of Vegas
I know you are worried about habs centre. Watch #15 that is the future number 1 centre and will be easily top 10-12 center in league in up coming years
The Habs will fuck up his development
Or Bergevin will trade him for a guy who is just falling outside his prime thinking he traded up lol
DB to coach Seattle
Wonder if he’d do anything insanely bush league like sit the longest Ironman streak in hockey just cuz…
Arizona will go central division
Once Seattle enter the league 2020
Vegas won’t need to protect players since they are a new team
Good thing this game is in Toronto… loud building for Tavares debut as a Leaf. No one would be there if they played this in Montreal.
Byron with a assist
Guess that’s worth 3.4 lol… a second assist. Funny if it was Kessel you’d be awfully judgemental about that 2a
Kessel gets 10m and played on 3rd line that’s the difference
You forgot he also doubles Byron in production… was a key contributor to b2b cups and was robbed of a Conn Smythe
Also what is his Cap hit again?
And he’s only “3rd line” to fucken morons that think EA is a perfect representation of real hockey lol.
How do you play Devil’s Triangle?
Ask sams mom, she got at least 1000 games played… all variations.
The NHL grew some balls. 20 games for Wilson!
seen that was amazed
That means his next dirty hit this year will be massive.
Well looks like all you loons have had a great camp and ready for the season to go. BTW WBS playing in Cleveland twice early in the season Oct 11 and 13. They don’t usually make it to Cleveland. .
I am kind of pumped despite the quiet Pens night. Leafs and Habs will be a gem… 7 – 0 I have the Leafs over Montreal in that one. Matthews 3 – 1; Marleau 1 – 1; Reilly 0 – 2 with Andersen pitching the goose egg on that lowly team. BIG NIGHT IN THE POOL lol
I will enjoy watching the Habs play doormat this year and Bergevin fucking up the lotto opportunity lol
I will enjoy mcdavid finishing once again. First in the league and yet not make the playoffs. Since he is in a shitholee of a team
Ok…
You have noticed you talk about the Oilers more than I ever have right lol
So I’m a oilers fan to now.
You said it, not me… besides, You talk about them enough…
Thumbs down crew had a good preseason camp.
Time to shift that in a season mode
As long as you know you fucken dumbshit! Like the fact that anyone agrees with you or the fucken fact that the down posts are the same people consistently taking shots at you are evidence it’s ethier you or your fucken mom protecting her cub but we all know she’s fucken everything that moves lol
He even has a second account and will sit there and thumbs up himself hundreds of times. It’s hilarious!
I’m sure I do stan
So are we, its obvious as fuckk you dumb shit lol
I thought I was Stan?
Habs are looking at inking Simon Despres to a contract HAHAHA…. at this point a minor league deal. He will probably end up in Laval where they will see if he can play centre LOL
I think Sam is actually Marc Bergevin. He comes on here looking for ideas on how to “improve” his team. It does explain a lot.
Have you boofed yet?
Amazon raising minimum wage to 15$ you should apply there fatso.
And stop your 15$ wage protest
Were you giggling as you typed this? I am genuinely curious… do you actually think this is funny?
Does Blumenthal’s stolen valor when it comes to Vietnam make him a hypocrite when telling other people how important honesty and integrity is?
Byron names assistant captain
How’s sheary doing zeroTooled
Lol, if there was more than three other legit NHL skaters on that roster this would be worth something lol
Real question is… why in the actual **** was Weber named captain? Guys done for most of the year lol. I mean clearly that means they intend to trade him very soon. They’ll probably trade down even further lol
Because MB thinks if you give a player a C that means you found a true center. And
Montreal only trades their great players for players in decline or worse.
Lol exactly. If he played in Pittsburgh, he’d be about 12th on the list.
Hartnell hangs up the blades…. I am getting old
Montréal couldn’t use him at center?
No they just promoted Webber to Center by giving him the C.
I heard npl has been thrown out of Florida
Due to misrepresenting #BlackCocksMatter movement
You’ve been pasting this in here for years now. At no point was it even remotely funny. You’re a piece of trash.
I heard Montreal has horrible Centers.
And Tom Wilson is in his mid seaon thuggery form already after his hit on Sundqvist. I am sure the NHL will just tell him he did bad and try not to do it again.
The streak he’s been on? 4 – 10 is what they’re predicting
This Kavanaugh circus is hilarious. The dems are so desperate its laughable. How come Dr. Ford didn’t say anything in 2003 when Bush nominated him to the appeals court? How come she was scared to fly to the meetings but not scared to fly once a month to other locations? Thank God Lindsey Graham spoke up.
Sprong agrees with you
Funny part is the stories are all from early 80s. Those women all were play up until now.
Ford then confirmed she has flown to Hawaii, Coast Rica, South Pacific Islands and French Polynesia to surf.
“It’s easier for me to travel going that direction when it’s a vacation,” Ford said.
Ford later reported she had been approached by the Montreal Canadians to play Center this season. She said no stating how badly they sucked.
7-6 npl mustve been entertain by this game
You’re such a fucking retard… you have this exceptionally narrow view of the sport. Low scoring over lots of offence, low talent but perceived hard work over production… and somehow being lazy while producing. If it falls outside this you hate.
Basically you like the fringe teams of the late 90s lol. Shut the fuck up. If you can’t enjoy a 7-6 game for what it is as much as a 2-1 goaltending clinic then go watch futbol fuckhead. You’ll get all the 2-1 action you can handle and then some.
You should know by now that he hates goals. His ideal game would be played by fourth line plugs. That’s generally the only thing his team ices, so he’s so used to it.
JS Dea claimed by Ray? LOL
They will flip him to Montreal for a 1st round pick. Montreal will have more depth at C now.
Letestu signed with CLB and is expected to see a lot of AHL time. Amazing some wanted this guy back lol
He could have been Montreal’s starting Center.
“Maybe Fleury would have played earlier for Vegas” – this is classic sam… He the sammich… you do know it would have been literally impossible for MAF to play earlier in Vegas right? You do know they had their inaugural year last season right?
Maybe he was talking about the LV Wranglers. At least he would’ve started there.
Man, I wish I would have seen that Sprong bust thing coming.
Every year we have some droolers on garbage prospects. Just few examples TK. bennett
PK Suban…. oh wait.
Paul Byron just got 3.4 million from the Habs and sam wants Byron to fuckk him in his mouth… 81GP 22G 43 Pts are highs from 2017; playing what.. 2 – 3C position? TK in 2008 – 09: 67GP 15G 20P would be 18G and 42 points over 81 – he won a cup with the Pens as a depth option on the 3rd line 2010 – 11: 80GP 20G 45 points… 2011 – 12: 60GP 11G and 66 points which would be 15 and 45pts over 81 Kennedy was a solid 3rd line option for 4 or 5 years… Read more »
Was that before after or during the era that you thought the answer was to blow up the roster and start all over… literally weeks before the 2016 cup run?
Besides, I think a lot of fans were hopeful but I don’t recall many committed to the idea he was guaranteed to be a star. Skilled player, said and seemed to do the right things in the A but has struggled to show much at the NHL level.
You mean between TG and Xmas 2015? Yes I was all alone.
LOL thats right… it was you and yoda. Good company… a lot noted changes were needed, most could see coaching wasnt working and the biggest issue but blowing the roster up? Ya that was a niche club
Yep, If you don’t tear it up in your first 26 games, you should just retire.
26 games or three years, one or the other
Just thought I would look deeper… guy had 18 games with a Pens team with its head up its ass in 2017 sure… he effectively turned pro just last year. While there are concerns to his game tbj is right, little early to write off the 21 year old. Some take longer… hopefully this is the case here but 3 years? technically ya but come on…
If Sprong does not prove his worth by Christmas I forsee him being moved in a package deal for D depth, a backup goalie or a mid round draft pick. I really hope this guy can make the transition to the NHL but so far he looks pretty lost or lazy. He may need a fresh start somewhere else.
Just put him on pp and his lazy image will disappear. Just like malkin and chubby
If he scores 96 or 92 points doing it I agree… fucken idiot
Same hates people that score. He’d rather have Canadian retirees and bottom six plugs that try hard but don’t accomplish anything (probably because he can relate so well to that).
Put him on Montreal and he will be moved to their first line center.
Dude your so funny with the no center jokes. I wonder where pens would be if there was no Crosby.
Maybe fleury would’ve player earlier for Vegas. Since it would’ve moved to Vegas sooner
Montreal center depth chart:
1. Domi
2. Danault
3. Plekanec
4. Peca
….hahaha
So the Penguins organization recognized they needed to rebuild, added assets and built a champion… Montreal is too fucken stupid to recognize their GM traded away their best assets and still refuses to commit to a rebuild… your point?
Montreal’s brass is what is really funny. Their center situation is just sad. I know it is hard to understand how teams build winners since Montreal has become a massive joke. 4 cup appearances and 3 Cups since the last time Montreal won a cup. And the two before that belonged to the Pens. And without Roy Montreal would not have won shit and what did their Management do, chase one of the best goalies in NHL history out of town. I see a pattern here. Go troll the Montreal board.
A lot said a lot of good things about him during this game. Maybe the demotion helped a bit. Again we will see how it plays out but I don’t think, with the potential emergence of Riiikola, that defensive depth is what needs a boost. The teams wings could use an injection especially if we are talking about moving a roster spot winger
Agree. Were already near the top of the league in money spent on dmen. We’re 7 deep with the Wedel as our 8th. The obvious position wouldbe a LW. We are very deep everywhere else.
Buffalo also rested most of their big guns. The verdict on Riiikola is still out. Don’t jump the gun. He has not played against true NHL teams yet. I am hoping guys like Riiikola and JJ play well so the Turn Over Machine will get less ice time. I still believe a true back up goalie will be needed at some point this season. Someone to push MM and keep him focused.
It wasn’t as much the quality of the competition as much as much as his willingness to play hard. Dont matter who is out there a soft game is a soft game and he apparently was willing to battle and did so against guys still fighting for a job so if that is the case it is finally a plus for him during a piss poor preseason IMO. Riikola is an unknown commodity that did everything right so far. He hasnt been up and down throughout the preseason and has arguably been the Pens best blue liner so far in… Read more »
The rested their biggest star during the pre season sheary