Penguins 3, Red Wings 2 (Preseason): Mike Sullivan Shares His Insight
By
Michelle Crechiolo
Penguins Team Reporter
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Casey DeSmith played the entire game in goal.
Radim Zohorna was originally penciled in, but the Calgary Flames claimed him off waivers this afternoon. The Penguins had hoped that the 6-foot-6 forward named Big Z would clear, as they were very impressed with his play these past couple of weeks. The 26-year-old had appeared in 25 career games for Pittsburgh after signing as a free agent in April 2020, collecting four goals and 10 points.
Sam Poulin slotted in at center after being excused from the team for a few days due to personal reasons, and Mike Sullivan was pleased with what he saw from the 22-year-old forward (we'll have a full feature on him tomorrow). The Penguins head coach discussed Poulin's play and more after Pittsburgh's 3-2 victory. The Penguins got out to a 3-0 lead on goals from Bryan Rust, Josh Archibald and Jason Zucker, before the Red Wings battled back to make it a one-goal game.
On Sam Poulin, Pittsburgh's first-round draft pick in 2019 who is looking to make his NHL debut:
I thought Sam had a great game for us. I thought he played with a lot of energy. He had the puck. He was willing to shoot the puck. I thought he was assertive. He played with a lot of confidence. I thought he had a real good game.
On the bottom-six, particularly Ryan Poehling and Josh Archibald:
We're just trying to get to know some of the guys, some of the new guys that we're not as familiar with. We played him a fair amount here in the exhibition season for that reason. I thought Ryan Poehling had a good game for us tonight at center. You can see how effective he can be defensively. He was good on the penalty kill. He's a smart player. So he's picking up some of the concepts that we're trying to implement. We recognize that that's going to be a little bit of an adjustment process for some of the new guys. But I thought Ryan had a good game, I thought the bottom six did too. For the most part, I thought the whole team played well for the first two periods. We didn't like the third period at all. I thought we just didn't play with the same level of conviction that we need to play with when you're playing with a three-goal lead. I thought we just exhaled a little bit instead of playing on our toes and trying to dictate the terms a little bit better out there in the third. But give Detroit credit. They pushed hard in the third as well.
On Casey DeSmith, who finished with 37 saves:
I thought Case played well tonight. It wasn't the cleanest game for us by any stretch. We had some breakdowns, and Casey was there to make some timely saves.
On special teams, with the power play going 2-for-2 after going 0-for-9 in the last meeting with this team, and the penalty kill thwarting both of Detroit's opportunities:
I think we're working on them every day. We're trying to get better every day in all those situations. I don't know that we ever arrive. You're always striving to improve in every situation, the special teams are no different. We've thrown a lot of information at these guys over the last couple of weeks, and so we recognize there's going to be some mistakes. We're going to try to learn through those mistakes and get better with each experience. I thought tonight was a good opportunity for us against a good team to try to improve and get better in some areas. I thought the first two periods were really strong for us. I know we all recognize we could have been better in the third.
