Inside Pittsburgh Sports

DAY 2 OBSERVATIONS

— Whether someone in the organization told him to play with more aggressiveness in his game or he thinks he needs to play that way, Derrick Pouliot has a bit of a chirpiness to his game during battle drills so far through two sessions. The key thing to watch for Pouliot in the preseason, though, is whether his gap control improves. An area scouts feel was horrendous for the young blue liner last season.

Daniel Sprong among the young players who stood out today.

Sergei Plotnikov has the look of a rugged winger but he’s no Patric Hornqvist in front of the net, at least not yet.

With the compete level in practice up a little bit more today, Plotnikov struggled at times to get proper [hide] positioning and was pushed around a bit in front of the net. He plays with an edge which is a positive but I had one former player tell me today Plotnikov needs a little coaching on how to attack the front of the net. The Penguins have a good one to teach him in that area in Rick Tocchet.

Overall it’s been two positive days for Plotnikov in what he’s showed with the offensive tools and hockey sense. Not to mention this is an entire new culture for him.

“He doesn’t really speak English. He understands, but sometimes he doesn’t know what coach is saying,” Evgeni Malkin said. “I try to help. The first couple of weeks he was scared, but now he knows players and everyone is friendly to him. Now it’s easier for him.”

Another reason Gonchar is sticking around.

Sergei Gonchar’s game at this stage of his career is all about using his smarts. Little left on his shot and the foot speed just isn’t what it used to be.

BELIEVE IT WHEN WE SEE IT, STARS ON THE PK

Every training camp for the last several years there has been talk from coaches that Sidney Crosby and even Evgeni Malkin will play bigger roles on the penalty kill.

It’s often just talk as once the regular season starts it never transpires.

Johnston today hinted at Crosby and Malkin seeing more time on the penalty kill just like he said last camp and Bylsma would in the past.

“Any time I’ve had high end players on the penalty kill the other team gets nervous when they’re on the power play,” Johnston said.

Yet we never saw much of it at all last season. Crosby averaged just 22 seconds per game on the PK and was normally only out there for a key faceoff in the left circle. Malkin who was an excellent PKer in the KHL as a young player 10 years ago, averaged just eight seconds per game shorthanded in 2014-2015 and has never been given a PK role in the NHL.

“When Sid’s out there killing, Geno’s out there killing, you are a little bit hesitant,” Johnston said. “If the puck turns over you have to be careful. The power play is on their heels a little bit. I’d like to get them in the rotation and work them in early in the season if we can.”

D-PAIRS

Should Rob Scuderi start questioning his future in Pittsburgh?

Mentioned yesterday that the D-pairs were something to read into and Johnston confirmed that today.

“If you looked closely at our defense pairs in practice, those are guys we really want to see how they look together,” Johnston said. “We had (Olli) Maatta and (Kris) Letang together a lot. We had (Derrick) Pouliot and (Ben) Lovejoy together a lot. We’re trying to see what they look like as a pair because we don’t have one pair returning that you could say was a pair we used all the time last year. There’s none of that. So we have to look at some pairs.”

A ton of chatter around the league on Scuderi right now and one specific Eastern Conference team. Hope have something to report in a day.[/hide]