CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins held their first full intra-squad scrimmage of training camp on Saturday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, and Team Black came away with a huge 7-0 blowout win over Team Gold.
Team Black's goals came from Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel (2), Justin Schultz, Kris Letang, and Sam Lafferty, and Tristan Jarry earned the shutout win.
Crosby left the scrimmage early and did not return. There's more on that here.
Here are my three stars from the scrimmage, and my other observations from the day:
3. Jake Guentzel
Guentzel had two goals of his own and had at least one assist, setting up Lafferty for the final goal.
The speed of Guentzel's line with Crosby and Conor Sheary was one of the biggest things I noticed from this. Sheary spoke about their line working to build chemistry during this camp, but it looks like a lot of that chemistry from the 2017 run is still there with the way they were setting each other up.
According to Guentzel, it felt good to just get back on the ice for the closest thing he's had to game action in seven months,
“It feels great," he said. "It’s been a while. You get so excited for these little intra-squad games, (even) when it doesn’t mean anything. Just for my situation, I think it’s good to get in a game-like situation. I really can’t wait to get going.”
With this being a full scrimmage, this was the most physicality we've seen throughout camp. Guentzel said that he doesn't feel any apprehension toward taking contact.
"I feel good," he said. "I’m just kind of taking it day-by-day and seeing where it goes, but from my end, I’m feeling really good. I’m energized and ready to go. It’s just been good to get back with the team here and get going.”
2. Sam Lafferty
Lafferty played like a guy trying to earn a roster spot.
Lafferty started out the game on Team Gold's wing, and was moved to Team Black's first-line center role after Crosby left the game. He played with a lot of speed, earning one breakaway and at least one other partial breakaway where he was denied. He was finally rewarded with a goal in the second half, finishing a feed from Guentzel.
Sheary spoke about Lafferty's game afterward, noting how well Lafferty moves.
"He's obviously a big body," Sheary said. "He moves really well for his size, he's kind of got that power forward instinct. When he gets the puck off the rush it's kind of hard for defensemen to contain in front of them or if he tries to cut wide like that, it's hard to contain him that way too. I was impressed with him. I've only gotten to play a couple of games with him, but I've seen that a few times now."
I asked Mike Sullivan about Lafferty, and he spoke highly of the performance.
“I thought Sam played well," he said. "He played hard. He brings what he brings. His speed is evident. He utilized that on a number of occasions. He’s got a strong game. He plays a power play. When he’s physical, when he’s strong on pucks and he’s using his speed to challenge defensemen wide or to force turnovers by closing on defensemen and making it hard on their breakouts, those are the aspects of Sam’s game that he brings to our team game that I think make us a better team. I thought Sam played well. He did a good job on the penalty-kill when he was out there. The fact he has the ability to play both center and wing, I think, his versatility is an asset that he has that’s great for our team as well. I thought he had a good game today.”
1. Tristan Jarry
Jarry has been having a strong camp, and that continued today. He looked sharp all game, and had a couple of huge saves, including breakaway stops on both Lafferty and Evan Rodrigues. There was just never a time throughout the scrimmage where he seemed in danger of not making the save. He was locked in.
Jarry did face the weaker team, with both Crosby and Malkin on his side. But Sullivan did say after that there isn't anything to read into when it came to which goaltender faced which skaters, noting that the reason Crosby and Malkin's lines were both on the same team was so they'd be able to easily run power play situations with the right personnel.
Sullivan added that both goaltenders will be able to get into different situations and get the reads they need throughout camp, which sounds like Jarry could face off against Crosby and Malkin in future scrimmages.
Jarry's performance was strong regardless of the makeup of the teams.
"There's NHL players on both sides," Sullivan said.
MORE FROM THE SCRIMMAGE
• These were the teams and lines in the scrimmage:
Black (coached by Sullivan):
Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Jason Zucker -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Jack Johnson -- Justin Schultz
Tristan Jarry
Gold (coached by Jacques Martin):
Patrick Marleau -- Jared McCann -- Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese -- Teddy Blueger -- Brandon Tanev/Sam Lafferty
Marcus Pettersson -- John Marino
Kevin Czuczman -- Chad Ruhwedel
Matt Murray
• Crosby left early in the second half of the game and never returned. Teams are prohibited from disclosing any sort of injury information during this time, but Sheary called it "a maintenance thing."
• None of the nine players (Patric Hornqvist, Anthony Angello, Adam Johnson, Samuel Poulin, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Philip Varone, Sam Miletic, Juuso Riikola and Alex D’Orio) who were held out of camp since Day 1 due to possible secondary exposure skated today.
• Mark Recchi was the linesman for the scrimmage, and skills coach Ty Hennes was the referee. The players seemed to get a kick out of seeing the two coaches out there dressed in full gear.
Ty Hennes and Mark Recchi are the officials. #Pens #DKPS pic.twitter.com/PdHwsxBRcY
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) July 18, 2020
Sullivan had no complaints about the officiating in this one.
"I thought they were on top of their own respective games," he said. "They try to keep the play moving."
• Wow, what a rough day for Murray. Four of the seven goals he allowed during the scrimmage came in quick succession. Then after the blowout performance from Team Gold, Murray came back out onto the ice with Jared McCann and Patrick Marleau to work on breakaways, and it almost hurt to watch as he let in the first four attempts, and a good number of the attempts after that.
• The last few minutes of each scrimmage was special teams work, with players briefly switching sides.
• Malkin's intensity in this was almost near that of a real game. He was taking jabs at guys with his stick, getting physical, arguing with the officials. His line had a ton of speed, too.
• Rodrigues and his wife welcomed a new baby, their second child, shortly before training camp started. I asked how he balances the excitement for the playoffs and the reality that after teams move into the bubble, it could be a while before players are allowed to see their families again.
“It’s definitely going to be difficult, but in hindsight, when you take things into perspective, it’s not the worst situation in the world," Rodrigues said. "I’m going to do something I love and I’m going to try to win a Stanley Cup. I’m obviously going to miss my newborn and miss my entire family, but there are sacrifices that you have to make in life, and this is one of them. Hopefully, when I look back on it, it will be worth it. You can always take the bright side of things and look positively and that’s what I’m going to try to do. There’s always FaceTime and stuff. I’ll be able to still obviously talk (to) and see my family. But like I said, you make sacrifices and you look positively at things and at the end of the day, we’re going to try to win a Stanley Cup, which is obviously every hockey player’s dream.”
• The Penguins are scheduled to be back on the ice Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
• I briefly caught a look at the broadcast the team produced for this, and it was super impressive. There were several camera angles, the usual on-screen graphics, and Josh Getzoff and Phil Bourque doing play-by-play and color commentary like it was a real game. Two more of these scrimmages are on the Penguins' camp schedule -- Monday and Friday. Pretty good way for the fans to get ready for real game action, too.
• Here's the full video of the scrimmage:
MORE FROM CAMP
• How will ice impact Penguins?
• Sullivan: Power play difference-maker
• Inside Penguins' practice playlist
• Kovacevic: Letang's right to rave
• Kovacevic: Can McCann do the job?
• Series breakdown: The goaltenders
