Lee's rapid-fire shots rise above rookies in preseason opener

It's hard to take much away from a preseason exhibition game, especially in the first one of the season when so few NHL regulars are in the lineup.

With most of the NHL regulars watching the game from the press box, though, Monday's preseason opener at PPG Paints Arena gave some of the Penguins' prospects an opportunity to make a good impression with management and the coaching staff, something Mike Sullivan spoke on before the game.

"We're asking our young players to do what they do best," Sullivan said after the skate. "To make an impression, make an impact. Not just get through the game, but try to make a difference in the game. That's all. I don't want them to overthink it. I don't want them to put too much pressure on themselves. I just want them to go out there, enjoy the game and do what they do."

Though the Penguins were shut out by the Blue Jackets, 3-0, a number of the prospects on the ice made an impact and left a good impression with their play.

The Penguins had eight players in the game -- forwards Sam Poulin, Nathan Legare, Jonathan Gruden, Justin Almeida, Jordy Bellerive, Jan Drozg, defenseman Cam Lee, and goaltender Filip Lindberg -- who have yet to make their regular-season NHL debuts. Of that group, all but Poulin, Legare, and Bellerive were playing in their first NHL preseason game of their careers.

Of the prospects, no one stood out more than Lee.

Lee led the Penguins in both shots on goal (6) and shot attempts (10), and it's no surprise how. Watching the way he moves his feet and is able to walk the blue line to open up scoring lanes for himself was one of the highlights of the game, especially in his role on the second power play unit. Something Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest stressed with Lee all last season was just learning the risk-reward balance of being an offensive defenseman, and finding out what he's able to get away with at the professional level in terms of playmaking. Lee still had a couple of questionable decisions in that regard in this game, ultimately being credited with one giveaway, but that's to be expected. He's still growing in that area. 

Sullivan said afterward that he thought Lee had "a pretty good game."

"You know, he plays with a lot of energy," Sullivan added. "He's a trier. You can see the urgency in his game, he's a real competitive kid. He has good poise with the puck. I think he makes some nice plays on the power play. He's got deception to his game. I thought he did some really good things out there."

Two players who stood out on the first power play unit were the Penguins' top two forward prospects, Poulin and Legare.

Poulin's skating still doesn't look to be quite up to NHL speed, but other elements of his game were impressive, notably his work in the faceoff circle. Poulin has experience playing both wing and center in junior, but he's been used exclusively as a wing in training camp and in this preseason game. On the power play, however, he was the forward taking faceoffs, and he went 6-2 in the dot. They were for the most part clean wins, too.

After Lee, Poulin was tied for the second-most shot attempts in the game with six, with two of them reaching the net. He was responsible for one of the Penguins' three high-danger chances all game, and recorded two hits as well.

"I think I played well," Poulin said of his game. "We had a good line, and I think we all did pretty good. I think the performance of the team tonight didn't reflect on the score that much. Just happy how things went."

JEANINE LEECH / GETTY

Nathan Legare tries to slip through the sweepcheck attempt by the Blue Jackets' Stanislav Svozil Monday at PPG Paints Arena.

With Legare, the biggest thing that stood out was his speed. That's been a focus of his over the last year, and he made major changes to his diet and training to lose 15 pounds with the goal of getting quicker. He spoke in development camp about having a more explosive first few steps as a result, but his top-end speed is impressive too in this setting.

"I feel lighter on the ice," Legare said after the game. "I think if I keep working hard, good things are going to happen."

Sullivan took notice of Legare's increased speed too in comparison to how he looked during the preseason in 2019.

"I think his pace has picked up," he said of Legare. "He tracked on the backcheck a couple of times, caught guys from behind. I definitely think he's picked up a step or two based on the last time that he was here."

Legare attempted five shots during the game, with three shots on goal. He recorded a high-danger shot attempt, and registered three hits.

"He can really shoot the puck," Sullivan said. "He's a competitive guy, he's not afraid to get involved physically. He gets his nose over pucks, he plays in battle areas. I thought he competed hard, and in the tough areas tonight he had a couple of good scoring chances."

A forward who quietly had a good game was Bellerive, who recorded three hits. He's so strong on his feet, there were a couple of instances where he'd collide with a Blue Jackets player and the Blue Jackets player would bounce off of him like he ran into a wall. Something I wrote back in July was that of all of the Penguins' forwards in the system, Bellerive was the one who reminded me the most of Brandon Tanev in terms of pure style. At least one element that Tanev was known for showed up in Bellerive's game today: Drawing penalties. The Penguins had five power play opportunities in the game, and Bellerive drew two of those penalties. 

Bellerive and Gruden both saw time on the penalty kill -- a little over a minute and a half each -- after being very effective in that capacity for Wilkes-Barre last season.

Almeida and Drozg both saw time on the second power play unit, with Almeida playing 4:27 on the man advantage and Drozg playing :59. Almeida didn't record any shot attempts, though before the game he said his focuses were "little things that help the team win, some stuff that doesn't go noticed on the score sheet."

Drozg recorded one shot on goal with his one shot attempt, and had a couple of good feeds to teammates that didn't result in goals. 

Another player who had a good showing was Lindberg, the NCAA-champion goaltender the Penguins signed out of UMass this offseason. Tristan Jarry started the game, and as planned the Penguins made a goaltending switch midway through the game, with Lindberg playing the last 27:10 of the game. He made 12 saves on 13 shots faced for a .923 save percentage, including a perfect 2-for-2 on high-danger shots faced.

"I thought Filip made a couple of good saves," Sullivan said of Lindberg. "He got tested there a few times or a couple of deflection opportunities with point shots. I thought he tracked the puck really well."

Lindberg said after the game that from his perspective, the speed of the game was the biggest adjustment for him coming from college.

All of those players will almost certainly spend time in Wilkes-Barre this season, and most will probably start the season down there, rather than on the NHL roster. One preseason game wasn't going to change that. If and when they do get sent down to the AHL, they'll go there having left a good impression on management with their individual performances, perhaps helping their cases for NHL call ups down the line.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Yegor Chinakov opened the scoring for Columbus, beating Jarry high-glove side:

Chinakhov, if you recall, was the Blue Jackets' first-round pick in 2020 despite being projected to go anywhere in the fourth round or later, sending the broadcast analysts into a panic because they had never heard of the guy:

• Jarry played in the first 31:34 of the game, making eight saves on nine shots.

• Adam Boqvist scored the Blue Jackets' second goal: 

• The Blue Jackets' third goal was an empty-netter from Emil Bemstrom.

• Sam Lafferty spoke after the morning skate about the "void" on the penalty kill with Tanev gone, and his desire to step up on the penalty kill this year. He took the initiative in this game of taking a slashing penalty in the second period and a tripping penalty in the third, giving the penalty-killers some extra practice. He did see 1:29 of penalty-killing time when he wasn't in the box.

• The Penguins went 0-for-5 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

• The Penguins led in hits, 21-19. 

• Brian Boyle is slow, that's very clear. I still think he'll make the team, though, just because of the lack of great options. He had a couple of good opportunities in this game but didn't get any great shots off. He might make a highlight reel somewhere for his hit late in the first period, crushing a Blue Jackets defenseman in the corner after he caught him admiring his pass. But still, my biggest takeaway from his game is just that he doesn't move very well at all.

• If you watched this game and still don't see how good Dominik Simon is at possessing the puck and then getting it to his linemates, then I don't know what to tell you. That was incredibly evident in this game.

• Kasperi Kapanen was the best player on the ice for either team. He somehow didn't get any shots off, but just watching him dangle around Blue Jackets players it looked like he was playing the NHL21 video game on easy mode.

• Poulin was missing one of his front teeth and had a bit of a busted lip in his postgame media availability, something he said happened in Sunday's practice. Poulin had left the scrimmage Sunday briefly after an apparent injury, so that's likely where he lost the tooth.

GETTY

• Lee took a shot up high late in the game and had to be looked at by a trainer, but Sullivan said that he'll be fine.

• The Sabres, Lightning, Oilers, Avalanche and Wild all had scouts in attendance. Tampa's scout was ex-Devil/Islander Stephen Gionta.

• The Penguins had four press box booths worth of people from management, the development staff, coaching staff, AHL staff watching the game.

• Skills coach Ty Hennes was on the bench as an assistant coach during the game. He filled that role last season when Todd Reirden missed a game due to COVID protocols.

• The press box was full of the other players on the training camp roster who weren't playing in the game, so it doesn't seem like many players (if any) are in isolation for contact with Zach Aston-Reese, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day. Blueger was one of the players I saw in the press box, and I can't imagine any players had more close contact than he did.

• Jason Zucker had the best suit I saw in the press box, it was teal and plaid. 

• I'll keep adding to it over the course of the season, but here's my annual Spotify playlist of the Penguins' warmup songs for games.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Adam Boqvist, Blue Jackets
2. Yegor Chinakhov, Blue Jackets
3. Emil Bemstrom, Blue Jackets

THE INJURIES

• Sidney Crosby is expected to miss six weeks while recovering from his wrist surgery.

• Evgeni Malkin is expected to miss the first two months of the season while recovering from his knee surgery.

• Filip Hallander is day-to-day with a nagging lower-body injury.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Sam Poulin - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Danton Heinen - Brian Boyle - Nathan Legare
Dominik Simon - Jonathan Gruden - Sam Lafferty
Justin Almeida - Jordy Bellerive - Jan Drozg

P.O Joseph - John Marino
Juuso Riikola - Mark Friedman
Cam Lee - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Brad Larsen's Blue Jackets:

Justin Danforth - Alexandre Texier - Emil Bemstrom
Gregory Hofmann - Cole Sillinger - Yegor Chinakhov
Liam Foudy - Brendan Gaunce - Adam Helewka
Navrin Muttier - Josh Dunne - Kevin Stenlund

Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm - Adam Boqvist
Mikko Lehtonen - Andrew Peeke
Scott Harrington - Stanislav Svozil

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins have a scheduled day off on Tuesday. They'll practice on Wednesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex at 10:10 a.m. The next preseason game is in Buffalo on Friday.

THE CONTENT

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