CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Evgeni Malkin was a puck-possessing Bear. Patrick Marleau popped two goals and flashed plenty of wheels for a 40-year-old. Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry traded pivotal saves on point-blank chances.
And yet, none of them on this Monday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex approached the impact of the one guy who might've had the least chance to do so in the Penguins' current training camp environment.
Which prompted me to ask Mike Sullivan if, in fact, Sam Lafferty hadn't gotten that particular memo.
"Well, Sam's playing hard," Sullivan replied, his face lighting up at the mere mention of the kid's name. "He only knows one way to play, and that's hard. He's competitive out there. You could see it in his game."
You could hear and feel it, too. Because when I'm referencing impact, I'm doing so literally.
Lafferty skated with a purpose, helped sustain the attack with determined, smart work along the boards, and backed off defensemen on the rush all through the 3-3 tie between the Black and Gold teams. If not for Malkin, he'd have been the most visible performer on either side.
But he also banged. Big-time. Nothing dirty or remotely dangerous, of course, but enough to boom the end glass after one near-miss flare that merely bumped Kris Letang, even though it could've done much more, then later with a solid shove to knock Brian Dumoulin back into the glass during a multiplayer battle for the puck.
There's a reason Sullivan sounded a bit edgy early in camp when reporters would ask him about either Lafferty or Evan Rodrigues as if they were the spare parts that ... honestly, they appeared to be. And now, particularly with Rodrigues being assigned to center the top line two days in a row in Sidney Crosby's absence, it's clear what that was.
No freebies.
"One of the things we talked about with our team," Sullivan continued with his answer to me about Lafferty, "is just getting to a certain competitive level as a group here with each passing day we're together. We don't have the luxury of easing into this thing, like we've got an 82-game schedule in front of us. We're going to have to get some edge, some bite, some competitive fire into our game right away."
Which swung him back to the subject at hand.
"Sam's helping us do that. He's playing the game hard out there. He's forcing guys that he's playing against to have to bring their best. I think that internal push is going to help with what's in front of us, but it's also going to help keep us all at our best."
Presumptive translation: If Lafferty keeps outplaying people, he'll just play.
• Another way of looking at it: What if Patric Hornqvist can't, for whatever reason, get up to speed?
Sullivan and his staff decided -- and announced early Monday morning -- that there'll now be four scrimmages in this camp rather than three. This one was the second, and the other two are Thursday, 7 p.m., and Saturday, noon. The team's scheduled for a Sunday departure to Toronto.
The reasoning?
"Part of it was on feedback from the players, and part of it was just our own observations of what our team has ahead of us," Sullivan said. "It's game situations. There's a certain level of conditioning in game situations that you can't simulate in practices and drills."
• The latest on Crosby, as well as Hornqvist and the return of the missing nine players is here.
• Sullivan didn't flinch when asked if players, even veterans, would have shorter leashes in the ongoing scenario of a shorter camp, followed by a best-of-five preliminary round against the Canadiens: "We're going to make decisions that are best for the team. I tell you guys that all the time: The responsibility that I have as the head coach is to put the team on the ice that I feel gives us the best chance to win each and every night. That's the criteria I always use. That's the question that I pose to the coaching staff."
Read into that whatever one will. All the local talk of shorter leashes seems to have been about the goaltending, but Sullivan most definitely isn't one to read or hear sports chatter, and I'd imagine that goes double when preparing for a playoff round.
• Full highlights from the scrimmage:
"Can you imagine a better way to start the work week? We can't."@PensJG and the Ol' Two-Niner were on the call for today's scrimmage. Here are your highlights: pic.twitter.com/nZryqaWFDN
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 20, 2020
Taylor Haase gave her three stars after the first scrimmage, so I feel obligated to give mine from this one:
3. Tristan Jarry
2. Lafferty
1. Malkin
That's not to downplay the two trademark finishes Marleau showed, nor to ignite the standard, ad-nauseam-already-at-this-point goaltending debates. Matt Murray also performed well at the other end, notably in stunting all three breakaways he faced -- twice with the blocker, once by closing the five-hole. Rather, it's more a commentary on the caliber of chances Jarry faced since he and Murray switched teams for this one and, now, Jarry was facing the top two scoring lines. (Minus Crosby, obviously.)
The team breakdowns:
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
Rodrigues and Jack Johnson scored for Black, Teddy Blueger and Chad Ruhwedel for Gold, and Marleau scored one for each, as some switching was done at the sole intermission for special teams purposes.
• Murray, on whether he's focused on outcomes more in this camp than he might in a normal one: "I really don't think so. You've got to focus on the process, and I think that's even more important right now. It's about being patient with yourself but, at the same time, trying to get on top of things as quickly as you can. It's a unique situation. You've got to do everything you can to prepare for Game 1 when the puck drops."
• This wasn't pretty. There was sloppiness all over, awful decisions, misfires, lapses ... I'll stop here in the interest of being kind.
Suffice it to say, if the Penguins are ahead of the other 23 playoff participants to any degree, then those 23 are doing even greater damage to the sport at the moment.
Not a criticism, mind you. That's life right now. It's all unprecedented.
• The team's off Tuesday. Taylor will cover the rest of the Penguins' camp, while I go cover baseball in St. Louis and beyond.
MORE FROM CAMP
• Crosby out, Hornqvist cleared
• Domi reports to Canadiens' camp
• Series breakdown: Goaltenders
