The Penguins beat the Sabres 2-1 last night in front of fewer fans than my daughter’s soccer games. Hard to blame the people of Buffalo. There’s nothing really for the home team to watch and the Penguins roster was just as bland, as was the game.

Dominik Simon scored and was praised by Mike Sullivan for other things he did on the ice. This will make some people mad. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter and yet was probably the most interesting part of the game.

The real story so far of the preseason is that nobody has really stepped up and made things interesting for the Penguins roster construction. Nate Legare and Sam Poulin remain longshots to impact an NHL roster in the near future, a big reason why I have advocated to trade them both before the shine wears off and their trade values drop. It might be too late for that, though. The overwhelming odds are by the time they are ready, if they are ever ready, they won’t be helping Crosby or Malkin which should be the entire point of the operation.

I wrote about Jordy Bellerive the other day as a candidate to watch. At 22 years old he is at a crossroads on gaining traction towards being an NHL player. Mike Sullivan complimented him

Mike Sullivan said yesterday he was impressed with Jordy Bellerive's "moxie." The Penguins forward displayed it just now by dropping the gloves with Buffalo's Matej Pekar and ending up as the clear winner of that fight.

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 1, 2021

Bellerive and Mittelstadt were just exchanging words and little shoves in front of the Penguins' bench. Scrappy.

— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) October 2, 2021

It appears the Penguins are grooming him to be a low impact gnat instead of trying to tap into the offensive side of things. Bellerive had decent enough junior numbers and his 10 goals and 18 points in 29 AHL games last year was a bump in production over the year before when he had 12 goals and 22 points in 53 games. He is 5 foot 10 and 195 pounds and they seem to be pushing the physical part of his game. I don’t blame Bellerive for embracing it. He’s doing everything he can to impress the decision makers so he can carve out an NHL career. I am just not sure it will ever be effective enough. It wasn’t, for now. He was sent down to WB/S after the game.

And then there were 35.

The Penguins have reduced their training camp roster to 35 players.

Details: https://t.co/8ePfp0zpji pic.twitter.com/vQVehEgPpx

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2021

Bellerive is like the random character in a bad show they spend an episode on while trying to get you to have a connection with... right before getting rid of them.

The lackluster preseason makes its next stop in Pittsburgh tomorrow for a 12PM faceoff against the Red Wings.

Thanks for reading!

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