Penguins wrap up exhibition season tonight

One more exhibition game as the team comes into focus

The Penguins played in Columbus last night, in a game I didn’t see, and won 3-1. They used a roady-worthy lineup of mostly players who will be headed to the AHL this weekend and beat the Blue Jackets’ despite being out-shot 34-24.

Tristan Jarry’s 33 saves were huge in keeping the under-manned Pens team in the game. Valtteri Puustinen, Jonathan Gruden and Kevin Hayes (empty net) scored the goals for Pittsburgh. Last night should be a great on ramp to the season for Jarry, CBJ compiled over three expected goals and only put one in the net.

On the Game Score impact card, most of the NHL players were at the top, and the minor league ones at the bottom. Quality game from Owen Pickering though, who won’t be in the NHL to start the season but has had a nice preseason for himself at the dawn of his professional career.

Coach Mike Sullivan had plenty of words and players to highlight when asked after the game which players stood out to him.

As far as guys that I thought played well, I thought Hayesy’s line played extremely well. Jesse Puljujarvi again, had a strong game. Rutger McGroarty, he’s a really smart player, and he’s got a strong stick. He’s pretty good on the wall. So, I think his game is growing and evolving.

I thought Brozer’s line was pretty good. Puusty and Ville Koivunen… Puusty is getting better as the camp went on. He had a really solid game tonight. Ville, I think, is getting used to the size and the strength of the players and the pace of the game. But you can see how smart he is and how well he thinks the game. I think he really sees it. So, we were encouraged with what we saw there.

I thought Sam Poulin had a couple of real good shifts. I could go down the roster. I said to the guys after the game that obviously we have some difficult decisions, and the biggest compliment to them is they’ve made the decisions more difficult. So, that’s a great problem to have from our standpoint. We’re thrilled with just the effort, the attitude, the intentions out there going over the boards. I thought the guys played hard.”

As Sullivan mentioned, the decisions will be difficult because many on the bubble have had good training camps. Arguably no one in this mix better than Jesse Puljujarvi, whose arrow is now pointing up and becoming a good bet to play himself into the opening night lineup.

On the defensive side, the team got to see Ryan Shea, Sebastian Aho and John Ludvig in the same game one more time this preseason. Similarly, Sullivan said of them:

“I have nothing but compliments all around with how hard these guys have competed throughout the course of training camp. They’ve certainly done everything within their power to set themselves up for success. And as a player, that’s really all you can ask of yourself. They’ve certainly forced us to have to make some really difficult decisions.”

Now that the JV is out of the way, the big boys are going tonight for one final preseason game.

However, this lineup probably is not going to be what is seen on Wednesday for the regular season opener. Bryan Rust is being held out of tonight’s game after picking up a minor injury in the earlier preseason game this week. No need to push it there. Erik Karlsson is back to skating with the team with the hopes always being that he would glide on into the regular season lineup, and after skating in the past three days it’s looking a lot more promising that he will be able to do just that.

Rust’s return will push one of Anthony Beauvillier or Drew O’Connor off the Crosby line, which in turn will bump one of Rutger McGroarty, Cody Glass or Jesse Puljujarvi out of the lineup.

It was a great subtle little move to get some work in for Jarry last night, in order to see the two other healthy goalies play behind an NHL caliber team today. Conventional wisdom is pointing to the job likely being Joel Blomqvist while Alex Nedeljkovic is out with injury, but it’s a positive to get the chance at seeing them.

In news no one would have any business believing as recently as just a few weeks ago, Harrison Brunicke reaches the finish line of the exhibition season dressing with the NHL club. Given Karlsson’s ever-improving status (including taking practice with the top power play this morning), what’s next for Brunicke is anyone’s guess. A bobble in performance tonight would answer any questions right there, but the youngster has impressed so much early on that would be surprising if he doesn’t continue to stay in the conversation for an early NHL debut.

That decision would have bigger roster ramifications, as the Penguins would have to waive a player to fit under the 23-player limit in order to keep Brunicke that they might otherwise have kept (Sebastian Aho or Ryan Shea). Brunicke’s time with the NHL club surely has a ticking clock for this year — he’ll either be going back to juniors in the coming days or after playing in fewer than nine NHL regular season games (to avoid tolling a year of his contract), but just how much longer he sticks with the pros is going to be fascinating.

An injury opening the door for a longer look from a young player could also be said for McGroarty, who finds himself involved in the final preseason game in no small part since Rust and Blake Lizotte (concussion) are unable to dress tonight. Like Brunicke, McGroarty is unlikely to be a full-time NHL player, he will ticketed to play some AHL time at some point this season depending on the team’s health. But McGroarty too has been good enough to keep himself in the conversation, making 2024-25 will likely be a time where he grows as a player into an NHLer at some point in the season as his development continues.