The Penguins have been participating in intrasquad scrimmages and it is the first time we’ve been able to see the Penguins players in a competitive environment in quite some time. Naturally, these scrimmages are going to be evaluated not only by the coaching staff, but by media and fans as well. Every little thing is going to draw attention. So far the big two items are Crosby leaving one of those scrimmages in the second period and not coming back. The second was the play of Matt Murray while he gave up (I think) seven goals.
First, the Sidney Crosby thing is a pretty obvious thing to latch on to. There hasn’t been a lot of information given so far on his absence. At this stage I am pretty sure we can rule out COVID because he wouldn’t have been on the bench to begin with. I think the likeliest thing is he tweaked a muscle and they are being cautious about it. This makes the most sense. These players haven’t played in forever at this intensity. I think we are going to see a lot of these types of things happen throughout the league. I think the tell it is minor is how the team has put together the lines without Sid. If this was a serious thing I don’t think Sam Laffrerty and Evan Rodrigues would be filling in the center spot between Guentzel and Sheary.
Lines (subject to change at literally any moment):
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 20, 2020
Black:
Guentzel - Rodrigues - Sheary
Zucker - Malkin - Rust
Dumoulin - Letang
Johnson - Schultz
Murray
Gold:
Marleau - McCann - Lafferty
Aston-Reese - Blueger - Tanev
Pettersson - Marino
Czuczman - Ruhwedel
Jarry
The goalies have switched teams for today's scrimmage, which will follow the same format as Saturday: two 25-minute running clock periods with the final 5 minutes of each frame spent working on special teams. -MC https://t.co/YvYQelLRuh
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) July 20, 2020
Over the weekend Murray was the goalie playing against the Penguins best players while Jarry was up against the depth players. Jarry clearly outplayed Murray. In normal circumstances I would hate going over the top with practice analysis, but this is all we are going to have before the real games start. While a bad start for Murray I can’t say I have a strong opinion on it, yet. Let’s allow the sample of practices to grow and see how both goaltenders are playing. I have no problem starting Jarry if he looks like the sharper goalie. Overall he has been the sharper goalie this year and in these practices. Matt Murray’s amazing Stanley Cup runs are past tense. Goaltending is such a wild card in a normal seven game series let alone a five game series after not playing for almost half a year. The more they play the more we’ll learn as we go, but there’s no exact science to this.
The nine players who were held out of camp for precautionary reasons have been cleared to join.
Patric Hornqvist, Anthony Angello, Adam Johnson, Samuel Poulin, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Philip Varone, Sam Miletic, Juuso Riikola and Alex D’Orio have been cleared to rejoin the team for training camp.
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) July 20, 2020
With Hornqvist returning and Crosby likely to return soon players like Rodrigues and Lafferty are going to have to make the most of their scrimmage time (both have scored a goal) to try and earn a spot in the lineup or as the 13th forward because a lot of these positions will be taken. I personally think Rodrigues is the better bet to have an impact on the team than Lafferty.
Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary Zucker-Malkin-Rust Marleau-McCann-Hornqvist Tanev-Blueger-ZAR Rodrigues/Lafferty
Thanks for reading!