BUFFALO, N.Y. -- I can't imagine that many people had "Dominik Simon opening the scoring" on their bingo card for the 2021-22 Penguins' preseason.
After getting shutout, 3-0, in Monday's preseason opener against the Blue Jackets, though, Simon's first-period goal in Friday's 2-1 win over the Sabres at KeyBank Center was the team's first.
As Simon enters his seventh season in North America and sixth in the Penguins' organization, he hasn't exactly developed into a prolific goal-scorer. He didn't record any points in his 11 games last season with the Flames. He scored seven goals in his 64 games in Pittsburgh in 2019-20. The season before that, he scored eight goals in 71 games.
The goal he scored Friday in Buffalo wasn't exactly a fluke. He showed real skill with this backhand shot from way out in the middle of the right circle:
His linemates Valtteri Puustinen and Michael Chaput earned the assists.
"Things started in our zone," Simon said of the play afterward. "I think it was a good breakout from us. All the guys touched it, and then I got the pass in their zone, and I just shot it with the backhand."
Something he's seen a time or two from his former linemate Sidney Crosby?
"Definitely, I saw (Crosby) doing that sometimes," he said with a laugh.
Simon nearly had a second goal in the third period, trying another move he's seen a time or two from Crosby. He took a shot from below the goal line and banked it off of the back of Sabres goaltender Dustin Tokarski. The puck bounced off the crossbar.
The goal and bank-shot attempts were just part of an overall strong game from Simon, who played in 17:27, recorded two shots, two hits, one takeaway and one blocked shot.
And yes, his ability to possess the puck and set up his teammates again stood out.
"He's shown us more of what he's brought in the past," Mike Sullivan said of Simon's game. "You know, I think he's stiff on the puck. He's good in the battle areas. He plays a real good give-and-go game. He's a conscientious player. He scored a nice goal, but he did a lot more than that. I just think he's one of the stiffer players that we have on the puck. It's tough to get it off him. I think that's part of what helps him, is that whoever we choose to put him with on any given night, that line tends to get some offensive zone time, because they're strong in the puck. I think it starts with him."
Despite such praise, Simon is well aware that he's not a lock to make this lineup, especially once the Penguins are healthy. But he's committed to proving that he belongs at the NHL level.
"I'll definitely try my best to stay up here," he said. "I'm just trying my best right now and trying to show that I can play here and I belong here."
GETTY
Penguins players celebrate Michael Chaput's goal Friday night in Buffalo, N.Y.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Kasper Bjorkqvist took a friendly-fire Taylor Fedun slap shot to the head early in the first period. He ripped off his helmet and quickly skated to the bench under his own power, though he left a trail of blood on the ice. He stayed in the locker room through the rest of the period, then returned for the second and third.
• The Penguins put Fedun on waivers prior to the game. He won't clear (if he goes unclaimed) until Saturday at noon, and even then the Penguins aren't obligated to send him down yet, so that's why he still played.
• The roster was comprised primarily or young prospects and new faces once again, but there's a reason why the Penguins couldn't dress only prospects. The NHL has a rule in the CBA that a team must dress at least eight veterans per preseason game. In this context, a "veteran" is any skater who played at least 30 games the prior season, a goaltender who has dressed in 50-plus NHL games in his career or played in 30 the prior season, any player with over 100 career games, or a first-round draft pick from the most recent draft. The Penguins dressed the bare minimum eight: Goaltenders Casey DeSmith and Louis Domingue, forwards Chaput, Simon, and Kasperi Kapanen, and defensemen Fedun, Marcus Pettersson and Matt Bartkowski.
• Chaput's second-period goal proved to be the game-winner. It was assisted by AHL-contracted defenseman Mitch Reinke:
• As expected, DeSmith played the first half of the game (30:30) and Domingue the second half (29:08). DeSmith stopped all 11 shots he faced, while Domingue stopped 20 of 21.
"I was impressed with Louis Domingue tonight," Sullivan said. "I thought he made some big saves down the stretch, Buffalo really pushed in that third period. They had a couple of high-quality chances. Louis did a real nice job, he made some big saves. Casey didn't get tested quite as much in the time that he was in the game tonight, but there were a few saves that he needed to make. That's a challenge in and of itself sometimes. It's important that we have depth at that position."
• For DeSmith, the preseason game was the first he played after suffering a bilateral core muscle injury in May that necessitated surgery.
"It felt good," he said after. "Games feel a lot different than practices. It was good to kind of get out there and get one out of the way."
• Jordy Bellerive dropped the gloves with Buffalo's Matej Pekar, and it wasn't even close. Bellerive dominated. Entering this game, the 5-10, 195-pound Bellerive had six career AHL fights and 12 career junior fights. The 6-1, 185-pound Pekar had two career AHL fights and two career junior fights. Bellerive's experience showed:
I asked Sullivan after the game if something like that could help Bellerive earn an opportunity in the NHL.
"Yesterday, someone asked me about him and I said he plays with a lot of moxie," Sullivan said. "For me, that's just more of an indication of it. He's a competitive guy, not afraid to mix it up. He's not afraid to stick up for his teammates. And I think that's one of the reasons why he endears himself to his teammates, but also to his coaching staff. I mean, everyone loves his compete level and his willingness to do whatever it takes to try to help the team win."
Bellerive definitely endeared himself to teammate Cam Lee with the fight. Lee, who wasn't playing in the game, shared a video of the fight on Instagram with the caption "Bellerive is a NAIL GUN."
• Nathan Legare led the team with five shots on goal.
• Drew O'Connor went 10-4 in the faceoff circle and had an overall strong game. Sullivan said that O'Connor seems more confident on the ice compared to last season.
"I think he's playing with just more conviction," he said. "He's not as hesitant. He won a lot of faceoffs tonight for a guy that hasn't played a lot of center ice at the pro level. ... Drew's an intriguing player because he has good size, he can really skate, he can shoot the puck. He's strong on the puck."
• The Penguins have two prospects who will be making the jump to North America from Europe this year -- Filip Hallander from Sweden and Puustinen from Finland. Puustinen played in his first preseason game on Friday on the line with Chaput and Simon, and I thought he fared well given that it was his first North American-style game. In addition to the assist and the plus-2 from also being on the ice for Chaput's goal, he played in 12:15 and twice broke up plays by the Sabres. The most evident thing about his game was his speed. He still looks to need work defensively, and he had one giveaway, but this was a solid first step.
Sullivan seemed really impressed with Puustinen's skillset when I asked for his impressions after.
"I think Puusty is a good player," Sullivan said. "He sees it pretty well. He's got good offensive instincts, he has good poise with the puck. ... I thought he made some offensive plays tonight. He can improve on the defensive aspect of the puck in certain areas, and we're trying to help him there. But what we see as far as his attributes, what he has, it's hard to teach those things. We're really encouraged by the progress that he's made."
As far as adjusting to the North American game, Sullivan said, "I think playing on a smaller ice surface, things happen a lot faster. So that's an adjustment and in and of itself, and just not having as much time or as much space to make a play. You've got to really have an idea of what you're going to do with the puck before you get it in a lot of circumstances. But he's a smart enough player, he has a high enough IQ that I think he'll adjust to that. He's adjusting to it on the fly."
• Puustinen's English isn't great yet. When I did my interview with him last season while he was in Finland, he asked to do it via email and had goaltender Emil Larmi serve as translator. There's no shortage of Finns on the training camp roster right now, with six total, Puustinen included. I asked Sullivan how they handle that language barrier with Puustinen, and it sounds like one of those Finns has been designated the official team translator.
"We pair him up with Niclas Almari, and he's kind of a defenseman slash translator. For sure, it's a challenge. That's never an easy thing. I couldn't imagine being a player and going to Finland and not being able to speak the language and trying to figure out what the coach is saying every day. I think Puusty does a real good job at that. We're going to work with him and try to help him in that area, and I think Niclas has done a real good job as far as acting as our as our resident translator."
• Almari played in his first preseason game of the year, as well, and left a good impression on Sullivan, and not just for his translating abilities. He played 17:57, recording two shots on goal, one hit and one blocked shot.
"We really like Nic's game," Sullivan said. "He's another guy that's evolving this year, he's playing a much more assertive game. He's playing with much more confidence. I think he's picked up a step foot-speed-wise, he's a little bit stronger. So we're excited about the progress that he's made."
• The Penguins went 2 for 3 on the penalty kill, with Tage Thompson's power-play goal being the Sabres' only goal of the game. The Penguins' top penalty-killing unit of O'Connor, Chaput, Fedun and Almari was on the ice for the Thompson goal. The second penalty-killing unit was Simon, Kapanen, Pettersson, and Bartkowski
• Sam Poulin, Legare, Kapanen, Simon, Puustinen, Radim Zohorna, Anthony Angello, Will Reilly, Reinke, and Pettersson all saw power-play time in the game.
• Only in Buffalo: The Sabres play both the U.S. and Canadian anthems here because of the proximity to the border. The anthem singer's mic cut out during the Canadian anthem, and the crowd started singing and carried it until the mic came back on.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at KeyBank Center:
1. Michael Chaput, Penguins
2. Tage Thompson, Sabres
3. Dominik Simon, Penguins
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.
• Zach Aston-Reese has COVID-19. His timeline for a return isn't yet known.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Sam Poulin - Radim Zohorna - Kasperi Kapanen
Dominik Simon - Michael Chaput - Valtteri Puustinen
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Drew O'Connor - Nathan Legare
Kyle Olson - Jordy Bellerive - Anthony Angello
Marcus Pettersson - Will Reilly
Niclas Almari - Taylor Fedun
Matt Bartkowski - Mitch Reinke
And for Don Granato's Sabres:
Jeff Skinner - Casey Mittelstadt - Victor Olofsson
Anders Bjork - Zemgus Girgensons - Vinnie Hinostroza
Drake Caggiula - Ryan MacInnis - Kyle Okposo
Matej Pekar - Sean Malone - Tage Thompson
Rasmus Dahlin - Henri Jokiharju
Robert Hagg - Colin Miller
Jimmy Schuldt - Mark Pysyk
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice in Cranberry at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday. The next preseason game is Sunday at noon against the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena and is the annual "Free Game for Kids."
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
