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Rookie Tournament Recap: Senators Beat Penguins 4-1 |
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Pittsburgh Penguins hockey is back, sort of.
The Pittsburgh Penguins rookie players took on the Ottawa Senators rookie squad today in a 2PM showdown. After everything was all said and done the Ottawa Senators left the game with a 4-1 victory.
I was able to watch scattered portions of the game today and in total I probably watched what amounts to about 30 minutes of game action. That means I also missed half of the game too.
Below are my observations from the sample size that I was able to view today.
The Senators forward unit was able to make many more skilled plays than the unit from Pittsburgh. One of the biggest things I took away from this game was just how thin the Penguins are at the forward position at their prospect level. Every player was working hard for Pittsburgh but there was just nothing there on the skill side of things. Regardless of what line was out for the Penguins it looked like it was a bottom 6 line. This revelation should not really come as a surprise as the Penguins have been investing all of their best draft picks into defensemen and goalies as of late.
The Penguins defense unit is what I looked most forward to when watching the game today and the pairing of Harrington and Maatta did not disappoint. Given that they were defensive partners in the OHL for the London Knights it was not a surprise to see the chemistry that both players had together.
Harrington was the player that stood out the most to me in today’s game for the Penguins. He was aggressive in his defensive reads, assertive in playing the body, and skilled enough with the puck to make all the right plays.
Harrington is usually heralded for his defensive play but I saw a guy that plays a style similar to Brooks Orpik on defense while also being able to add more offense than what Orpik is known for. One example of this was when Harrington started the breakout with a pass deep in the Penguins zone and then immediately followed the play up leading to an odd man 3 on 2 rush the other way.
Harrington saw a good chunk of time on the PP and his ability to get a hard snap shot through traffic directly led to the Penguins only goal in the game.
Maatta looked exactly like the player that you read about. Smooth skater, good puck skills, very good hockey IQ. Maatta saw a good amount of time on the power play and was able to facilitate the puck in an effective manner.
Derrick Pouliot was rather pedestrian in today’s game. There was nothing about his play today that would indicate that he was a highly touted offensive defenseman. He had a lot of pucks bounce off of his stick and his work on the PP did not lead to many chances with the man advantage.
Pouliot was given the opportunity to kill some penalties in today’s game and did a good job with it. Defensively Pouliot had good positioning but he is not as physical as Harrington, or even Maatta.
Understand that when I say these kind of things I am only basing it off of today’s game and today's game only. It doesn’t mean that I think Pouliot is a bust or that he will not be able to play at the next level.
The thing to remember when evaluating the Penguins defense prospects in this setting is that the forward group is so weak. This means a lot of their smart puck movement will go fruitless.
The only Penguins forward that deserved a notice was Tom Kuhnhackl. Kuhnhackl had his motor running today and it led to some nice defensive plays for the Penguins. On one sequence he was the last Penguin back and he was able to use his extremely long reach to keep the oncoming Senators player wide and also was able to cleanly poke the puck away to the side safely.
Kuhnhackl did a nice job of staying on the defensive side of the puck at all times which helped with his positioning.
On the goaltending front the Penguins started with Eric Hartzell for the first half of the game and then midway through switched to Tristan Jarry. Both goaltenders gave up 2 goals apiece. 3 out of the 4 goals allowed were a direct result of a rebound. The third goal on Jarry was a shot from a sharp angle which he kicked aside but the Penguins rebound coverage was atrocious.
However it was Jarry who was totally responsible for a rebound goal on the Senators 4th goal. Derek Grant of Ottawa was on the right end of both those rebounds as he scored both the 3rd and 4th goals.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Rochester, NY native Shane Prince were the most noticeable forwards on the ice for the Ottawa Senators. They were able to create many quality offensive chances. Shane Prince earned two primary assists and Pageau was able to score the 2nd goal for Ottawa.
That is all for now. I look forward to building off of these observations when the Penguins are back in action on Saturday night against Toronto.
Thanks for reading!
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