Musings: CBJ 4, PIT 0 (Preseason Game 3)

The Penguins brought a lineup of mostly younger players and prospects to Columbus for their penultimate preseason game on Thursday. Here were the lines and defense pairings:

Filip Hallander-Connor Dewar-Elmer Soderblom

Rutger McGroarty-Tristan Broz-Ville Koivunen

Avery Hayes-David Gustafsson-Atley Calvert

Tanner Howe-Bill Zonnon-Mikhail Ilyin

Owen Pickering-Harrison Brunicke

Caleb Jones-Ryan Graves

Jake Livanavage-Ilya Solovyov

That group had a challenge, as the Blue Jackets dressed an NHL-heavy lineup in front of the home crowd. And while the cannon went off four times in a 4-0 win for Columbus, it was a great learning experience for the Penguins.

“Just how they manage pucks, they know their releases, they know their outs,” McGroarty said. “They’re very mature in the NHL, and I think it’s something that everybody can work on. It just amplifies it to a whole other level once you come from summer, and it just reminds you how good guys are.”

Sergei Murashov, who is battling for a spot in Pittsburgh after two brilliant All-Star seasons spent mostly in the AHL, played the entire game in goal after stopping all 13 shots he faced in the first half of Monday’s 4-1 win over Buffalo.

The young goaltender was particularly philosophical tonight, with his interview worth a watch as always.

“You want to go out, have fun, compete, show what you've been training, and then after, just kind of reset," Murashov said of his expectations going in. "Take a look. What happened? What was good? What can you do better? And just keep going. So, keep walking your path. But really, no expectations of the game. It's just like, obviously, it's the best players. Every single team has top players, which is going to create some offense, and you got to be ready.”

Here’s what Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse had to say after the game.

What are your overall impressions?

I thought we worked. You saw it from the first shift, I think you saw it through the last shift. The guys they worked, and that's what we asked them coming into it. It was a great opportunity for a lot of guys here tonight in terms of coming in here and playing against a pretty veteran group there for Columbus. A lot of guys that have been in the league for a long time and done some great things in the league, and then some guys that don't have that type of experience on our end, getting an opportunity to come in here and show what they can do against them, and I thought the guys worked. It was a low-event game. I thought we defended hard. I thought we had guys back. A couple of those breakdowns that we had, they were pretty quick to turn the other way with them. But I think this is for us to get ready for the year, and it's also for us to be able to evaluate and be able to see these guys in the situation. And can't recreate that in practice. I think it was it was good in the sense that we were able to have these guys in the game. And again, I do like the work that we saw tonight.

What did you see from Sergei Murashov tonight? You know he's going to battle all the time. I think that first one, there was traffic coming right in there, and I think we could have boxed out a little bit better. There was a couple of layers there. I think shortly afterwards, he came up with a huge save. Some of it's also, especially with young players, it's saying, like, when things don't go well, what are you doing next? And so, to see a big save right after that, and the way he stuck with it... I thought overall, we did a pretty good job defending, but the chances they got, they were pretty high quality.

What did you see from the McGroarty-Broz-Koivunen line, and did you see them maybe get a little better as the game went on?

Yeah, I think you saw them finding some chances there. Even late in the game, they had some good looks. I think as the game went on, they were able to kind of maybe create a little bit more in terms of some of that offense, whether it was off the rush, counter or in-zone.

What did you think of how Hallander-Dewar-Soderblom worked together?

I thought they were great. I thought they played really well. I thought they were able to extend time in the offensive zone. I thought their tracks were really good. I thought they also set the tone for the game for the group, even just within their first couple of shifts, showing the way that we want to compete, and I think other guys followed suit.

If the opportunity arises or is necessary, could that be a line you have to use on September 29^th?

We got another game. We got more practices. So, right now, I'm going to be very non-committal to anything when it comes to that. But it was good to see. It's good to be able to see whether it's different sometimes pairs, sometimes lines. Now you have an idea, and you're not guessing.

What did you think of Graves in his first two games?

Tonight especially, I thought he was really working to take away space, working on the gaps. I thought he had some good defensive stops.