No, that was not another preseason game for the Penguins. It just felt like it.
Thursday’s season opener at PPG Paints Arena pitted the league’s oldest team, one hoping to squeeze one more Stanley Cup out of its generational core, against a mishmash squad of random veterans and a few barely legal NHL newbies.
Unsurprisingly, the outcome was never in doubt. Shortly after all the prerequisite pregame pomp and circumstance ushered in a new hockey season in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby and the Penguins pumped in three quick goals to put the Arizona Coyotes in their place. From there, they cruised to a stress-free 6-2 victory.
The home team simply had too much star power. Crosby started his 18th season in a Penguins sweater, a franchise record, with three points. Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel also scored. And Kris Letang had a multi-point performance, too. They led the way as the Penguins outshot the Coyotes by a 53-28 margin.
“We were just playing on our toes. First game of the year, at home, guys were excited to get going. You could tell we had a lot of jump,” said Crosby, who for the first time in his career scored a season-opening goal. “Sometimes, you start like that and [the puck] doesn’t go in. We had some good looks and buried them.”
It was a fun night for most paying customers. And it’s never a bad thing to open a season with a win. But it is difficult to glean anything from this performance. The Penguins faced more potent lineups in a few of their recent preseason tilts.
Watching Crosby, Malkin and Co. skate circles around the tank-tastic Coyotes, one’s thoughts couldn’t help but wander off to the “X-Generation” team of 2003-04.
Those Penguins faced an uncertain future in Pittsburgh as they angled for a new arena. They iced an odd collection of prospects and fringe NHLers. Then they piled up losses in the hopes that ping-pong balls would later bounce their way.
The Coyotes are in a similar situation, hoping to lose hard for Connor Bedard. They will have many more nights like this. But odds are they will not be as lucky.
The Penguins, meanwhile, hope Thursday’s win was their first on the road to their 17th straight playoff appearance — then a much longer postseason stay.
The Penguins grabbed the lead just 1:22 into the game. Guentzel raced to negate an icing call then whipped a blind backhand pass from the right corner to Crosby, who put the puck between the pads of poor Coyotes goalie Karel Vejmelka.
Jason Zucker and Guentzel soon made it 3-0, just the second time in the league’s modern era a team scored three goals within the first 5:10 of an opener.
There was a poetic moment in the second period, when Crosby and Letang set up Malkin for a power-play goal. A few months ago, it was unclear if those three would remain teammates. But there they were, celebrating in the corner together.
“It’s a special place,” Letang said. “And we love playing in front of our fans.”
Bryan Rust and Kasperi Kapanen scored in the third to punctuate the win.
Ice chips
• The Penguins went 2 for 6 on the power play and easily could have had a couple more. They had the puck on a string. The penalty kill was another story. With six new players being integrated into the PK unit, the Penguins got stretched out on the perimeter and left Nick Ritchie all alone in the slot on both Coyotes goals.
• Letang was utilized sparingly on the kill. Their top four defensemen were Brian Dumoulin, Jan Rutta, Marcus Pettersson and Jeff Petry. The Penguins trimmed Letang’s shorthanded time on ice in each of the previous two seasons. But he was a rookie the last time he averaged less than a minute per game on the PK.
• Petry was as advertised in his debut. He had an assist. He dropped to block a shot, briefly limping down the tunnel. He played in all three phases and was second on the team in ice time. And he was in the thick of it when the game got chippy. “He’s a top-two defenseman on any team in this league,” Mike Sullivan said.
• Curiously, it was Malkin, not Crosby, who took many of the faceoffs on the power play. “We leave that up to them,” Sullivan said. And with Malkin on fire in the circle, winning 11 of 14, that explanation made sense. But there was also a 5-on-5 faceoff in the first that Crosby let Guentzel take. It’s something worth filing away.
• Pierre-Olivier Joseph went from on the trade block to in the lineup. He got the nod over Chad Ruhwedel. Skating next to Rutta on the third pair, Joseph played 15 minutes, took a penalty and had an even rating. “He was solid,” Sullivan said. “That pair, we’re asking them to be simple, to play smart, to defend well.”
• With Teddy Blueger out with an upper-body injury, Ryan Poehling skated as the fourth-line center Thursday. Poehling had a pair of neutral-zone giveaways that put his teammates in difficult positions. As for Blueger, he still sported a non-contact sweater at the morning skate. Sullivan said his status remains day to day.
Stat n’at
79.7% — expected goals percentage with Malkin on at 5-on-5. Centering a line with Zucker and Rust, Malkin made his impact felt all over the ice. He led the Penguins in offensive-zone possession time and shots from the slot, per Sportlogiq, and only two teammates carried the puck out of their defensive end more often.
They said it
“We know that with each game we’ve got to get better. But we had a really good start. We got the lead. And it’s good to get our first win.” — Captain Crosby
Coming up
The Penguins are scheduled to practice Friday in Cranberry, then a day later will host the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena. Could be a good one.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: October 14, 2022, 1:57 a.m.
Updated: October 14, 2022, 12:02 p.m.