CRANBERRY, Pa. -- All signs are pointing toward Joel Blomqvist earning his first NHL game in net in just about a week's time.
The Penguins on Wednesday set Alex Nedeljkovic's status as "week-to-week" with a lower-body injury that he sustained in Monday's game in Detroit, forcing Blomqvist to finish that game in relief. Barring a miracle, that would presumably leave Nedeljkovic still sidelined when the Penguins open the season on Oct 9. And with the Penguins starting the season with a back-to-back -- at home against the Rangers on opening night, then in Detroit the next evening -- Blomqvist will likely be in net for that game against the Red Wings again.
Blomqvist, with his ever even-keel demeanor, doesn't want to get too ahead of himself just yet though.
"It's unfortunate every time a teammate gets injured, but that's the times when opportunities come up for other guys," he said after Wednesday's practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. "Just take it day-by-day and do my best if the opportunity comes."
Blomqvist has been one of the high points of the Penguins' preseason so far, though it didn't start out that way.
The plan in the Penguins' preseason opener in Buffalo, N.Y. was for Blomqvist to start and play the full 60 minutes. He had a good (albeit busy) first period and stopped 15 of 16 shots, but was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals on his next eight shots.
Knowing that the game in Buffalo was uncharacteristic of Blomqvist, the Penguins gave him another planned opportunity the next game, also against the Sabres. Nedeljkovic started the game and stopped 13 of 16 shots before a planned switch at the midway point of the second period, after which Blomqvist came in and stopped all 11 shots he faced.
"It was a great response from him," Mike Sullivan told me of Blomqvist after his bounce-back game. "It was one of the reasons why we wanted to get him back in there. I thought he played a very calculated game. He has a calm demeanor. He was tracking pucks. He made a couple good saves for us. And I think that's a really good sign when a player has the ability to bounce back the way he did."
The plan in Detroit on Monday was for Nedeljkovic to get the full game in, and for Blomqvist to be the backup. Nedeljkovic only made two saves on two shots in the first 13 minutes of the game before injury forced him to leave the game. Blomqvist played the last 47 minutes, and stopped 20 of 21 shots.
"I mean, I thought also our team did a good job in that game," Blomqvist said Wednesday, downplaying his relief effort. "I think they didn't have a lot of open shot chances that game. We played good defense in that game."
The defense wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as Blomqvist is suggesting. Of those 21 shots he faced, nine were high-danger chances. And then there was stuff like this:
JOEL! ❌ https://t.co/ui6m6yHryF pic.twitter.com/Xu0z2xgRZI
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 1, 2024
Blomqvist having that initial tough game then immediately shaking it off and moving past it and being great is impressive for a 22-year-old coming off his first season in North America -- perhaps more impressive than had he been fine the whole way through. Bad games are inevitable, even for the NHL's best netminders. To have the opportunity to see Blomqvist's response has been a real bright spot of the preseason.
"As a young player, when it doesn't go the way you want, sometimes that could affect your overall confidence and in turn, affect your future performance," Sullivan said of Blomqvist. "And that hasn't been the case. He put it behind him. He went back to work. He controls what he can control, and when he gets back in the net, he did a terrific job. So I think that says a lot about his maturity. I think it says a lot about his his resilience. Sports are tough. It's going to challenge you all the time. Your ability to be able to shrug some of the disappointments off is essential to, I think, your ability to have success as as a player. He certainly has reacted the right way to what could have been a tough situation for him."
JONATHAN KABANA / PENGUINS
Joel Blomqvist in the Penguins' training camp in Cranberry, Pa.
Tristan Jarry called it "never good" to see a teammate like Nedeljkovic be sidelined with an injury. But he thinks it's "exciting" to have the opportunity to share the net with Blomqvist.
"He's been awesome," Jarry said of Blomqvist. "He moves great laterally, he's a great goalie, and we're obviously excited. I think Joel's ready and it'll be exciting."
That last game in which Blomqvist played in relief in Detroit featured a depth-heavy Penguins squad against an NHL-heavy Red Wings team. Two of the NHL skaters who played in that Detroit game were Noel Acciari and Lars Eller, who were both impressed by that they saw from the Finnish rookie.
"The other night in Detroit, to come in cold?" Acciari said. "That's hard for a goalie, mentally, to jump right into it. He made some huge stops early on in that game, and he didn't look back after that. He's playing really well right now."
"He seems to track pucks really well through traffic," Eller observed. "He's alert. It was a tough situation to be put in, and he did really well. He was ready and competitive all game. That's what you ask for first and foremost. It's a great opportunity for him to be up here. Hopefully he feels comfortable, and if and when we need him, he can play like he did in Detroit."
Blomqvist is coming off an exceptional rookie year in the AHL. An AHL All-Star, he came just shy of a franchise record, with his 25-12-6 regular-season record tying Matt Murray for the second-most wins by a rookie goaltender in Wilkes-Barre history and coming one win short of Marc-Andre Fleury's record of 26. That's not bad company to keep. And while wins are more of a team stat, Blomqvist's 2.16 goals-against average and .921 save percentage reflect just how impactful he was.
While Blomqvist remains a little new to most of the roster, the younger players who saw time in Wilkes-Barre last season know full well just what the Penguins are getting here.
"Oh, he's really good," said Valtteri Puustinen, who also knows Blomqvist from Finnish national team events. "The last game in Detroit, he played so good. We won because he made big saves. When he played in Finland, I saw he's a really good goalie. I trust him. He's a fun guy, professional."
"He's a competitor," Jack St. Ivany told me. "He never gives up on a play. He makes a lot of saves look easy because he has great positioning. To be as young as he is, seeing his development and ability to play at a high level for that long, getting used to the pro style so quickly, shows his maturity and character."
It was Blomqvist's consistency that was the most impressive part of that All-Star season. He didn't have a bunch of high highs and low lows that averaged out to good numbers. In his 45 appearances, he only allowed more than three goals six times, and three of those instances came in a single rough three-game stretch starting in November. He had one shutout, and 17 games where he only allowed one goal.
For the players in front of Blomqvist, especially defenseman like St. Ivany, knowing they had a steady goaltender behind them just bred confidence throughout the rest of the lineup.
"It allows you to just worry about your own game," St. Ivany said. "We defend hard, but it allows your D to get up in the play. You know that if you give up a chance the other way, that he's the best guy back there to make the save. Also, our penalty-kill was one of the best in the AHL, and he had a lot to do with that. On the PK, your goalie has to be your best killer out there. For him, that was a big part of his success was making timely saves and winning us a lot of games."
As Blomqvist looks to take this next step and break into the NHL, it'll be an adjustment. He's handled the adjustment to the North American style of play well, and he's done well against NHL shooters in the preseason, but facing a full NHL lineup in games that actually matter is going to be a whole new level.
Jarry, who said he's learning as much from Blomqvist as Blomqvist is learning from him in this camp, is going to look to serve as a kind of mentor to the Penguins' young goaltending prospect.
"It's always hard, there's always a lot of nerves," Jarry said of breaking into the NHL. "You always obviously want to do well, and the pressure is a little different coming from the American League to the NHL. That's one thing that I found, is the games are a little bit faster. The players are in better spots. So I think that's just something that you'll have to learn, really, as you play. And I think he's done a great job."
MORE FROM CAMP
• Bryan Rust missed practice with a maintenance day. Vasily Ponomarev is day-to-day with an upper-body injury (likely shoulder, sustained Tuesday). Blake Lizotte has a concussion from taking a puck to the face in Sudbury, there's no timetable there. As previously mentioned, Nedeljkovic is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Erik Karlsson, Beau Jelsma, Jagger Joshua and Matt Nieto all skated. While Taylor Gauthier is still technically on the Penguins' roster because injured players cannot be sent down, he's physically in Wilkes-Barre now to rehab his lower-body injury.
• After practice, AHL-contracted players Avery Hayes and Dan Renouf were sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Jimmy Huntington, Mac Hollowell and Marc Johnstone were put on waivers. They should be sent down once they clear.
• The Penguins broke into a depth-heavy group and an NHL-heavy group for practice, with Wilkes-Barre coach Kirk MacDonald leading the depth skate. Notable players with the depth skate were John Ludvig, Sam Poulin, Emil Bemstrom and Boko Imama. There were two goaltenders on hand for that skate -- Filip Larsson, and Penguins practice goaltender Mike Chiasson. Practice goalies are people too. Don't forget that.
• The Penguins didn't spend much time on five-on-five. Up front, only the top two lines were consistent:
Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Anthony Beauvillier
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell.
In the bottom six, Eller and Kevin Hayes served as centers, but Puustinen, Cody Glass, Rutger McGroarty, Jesse Puljujarvi and Acciari rotated as the wingers.
• The defensemen primarily used:
Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Graves - Harrison Brunicke
Ryan Shea - Sebastian Aho
The only real rotation on defense was St. Ivany and Brunicke switching partners a couple times.
• Top power-play unit: Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Michael Bunting, Rickard Rakell
• Second power-play unit: Matt Grzelcyk, Drew O'Connor, Jesse Puljujarvi, Kevin Hayes, Eller
• Brunicke has been having one of the most impressive camps of the prospects, if not the most impressive. But because of the NHL-CHL transfer rule that prevents NHL teams from raiding junior prospects only to stash them in the minors, Brunicke isn't eligible to play in the AHL for two more years. It's either the NHL full-time, or back to junior. He can get a nine-game tryout in the NHL to see whether he's ready without his entry-level contract kicking in, and the Penguins are seriously considering doing that.
"Of course, there is (a chance)," Sullivan told me when I asked about Brunicke staying around. "We're watching these guys, and we're trying to reserve judgment and see how the camp evolves. With every opportunity that these guys get on the ice, it just gives us another opportunity to observe and gather more information on the players that we have. Anything's possible. We're going to try to put the best 20-something players on our roster for opening night that we think gives us the best chance to win. That's the approach. I've been asked a number of occasions about Harry's game, and it's hard not to be complimentary. He's just had a terrific camp, he's gotten better with every game he's played. He looks the part when he practices with our top players, and we like so much about his game. We'll see where it goes, no one's going to get ahead of themselves here. We're just going to watch the camp evolve and try to make the best decisions for the team and the individual players that are part of this. That's the responsibility that we have as the hockey operations group."
With Brunicke playing on the right, there would be a clear opening if Karlsson isn't ready to start the season, though Sullivan has said a few times now they're confident Karlsson would be ready. When the team is healthy, because Brunicke plays on the right, his only real competition for a spot would be with St. Ivany. That'd be a tough one to beat out, given that St. Ivany is also young and having a good camp.
• The Penguins are playing a home-and-home against the Blue Jackets on Thursday and Friday, starting with a game in Columbus at 7:08 p.m. on Thursday. That game won't be televised, but will be streamed on the Penguins' own website and on the radio at 105.9. This is the group the Penguins are bringing to Columbus:
Goalies: 31 – Filip Larsson, 35 – Tristan Jarry
Defensemen: 4 – Nathan Clurman, 5 – Ryan Shea, 7 – John Ludvig, 25 – Sebastian Aho, 38 – Owen Pickering, 45 – Harrison Brunicke, 82 – Filip Kral
Forwards: 2 – Rutger McGroarty, 12 – Corey Andonovski, 13 – Kevin Hayes, 14 – Boko Imama, 15 – Joona Koppanen, 18 – Jesse Puljujarvi, 22 – Sam Poulin, 26 – Tristan Broz, 41 – Ville Koivunen, 44 – Jonathan Gruden, 48 – Valtteri Puustinen, 52 – Emil Bemstrom
