Musings: PIT 3, BUF 1 (Final Preseason Game)

Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the preseason has been shortened to four games, and players with 100+ NHL games of experience can play a maximum of two.

After watching Pittsburgh’s exhibition finale on Saturday in Buffalo, it’s safe to say that is plenty of time for the veterans to get their timing and execution into a good spot.

The Penguins ended up with a 3-1 win, with two other goals getting overturned on successful coach’s challenges (one for goalie interference, one for offside).

The line of Nick Robertson, Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell created two of the goals that counted, and one that didn’t.

The captain opened the scoring in the first period with a slapshot goal from the left circle, a vintage Crosby goal. In the second period, Crosby showed off his prowess down low by coming away with the puck and finding Robertson in front, who dropped to one knee to tee off a shot. Rakell was there for the rebound, but it didn’t count due to the play being offside. In the third period, Rakell negated an icing with Buffalo’s goalie pulled, and Robertson buried a pass into the empty net.

Robertson, acquired from Toronto and signed in the offseason, has looked good slotting in alongside Crosby and Rakell, longtime linemates and teammates.

“I feel like we’re still working on the chemistry, but I mean, the chances are there for us in these two games that we played, and we're obviously trying to keep building,” Rakell said.

The other tally came from the trio of Ville Koivunen, Hendrix Lapierre and Bryan Rust. It was part of a great shift where they kept coming away with the puck, Rust worked it to the net, and Koivunen put it home.

Unfortunately, the Penguins’ much-discussed forward depth going into training camp continues to be tested as Bryan Rust left the game in the second period. Head Coach Dan Muse did not have an update on his status following the game.

After a tough outing in his other preseason appearance, a 7-4 loss to Detroit, Arturs Silovs was as solid as it gets in this one.

“I think it was just getting a little bit in the rhythm,” Silovs said. “First game, a lot of things felt unnatural. Hadn't played like for a long time. I think today, I felt like much more comfortable. Felt like, oh, I’m coming back to my game, how I play.”

That’s what Muse expected from the 25-year-old goaltender, considering his body of work last year, his first with the Penguins.

“There's going to be games that you're going to look back on and you're going to say you want to do things a little bit differently, and you learn from those. And he's shown that over the past year for me, his ability to bounce back,” Muse said.

“I think he was finding pucks. I thought he was battling. I feel like there was rebounds early on that he was quickly getting out of the way whereas the other night, some of those, they were finding it. It's our defense, I think, being maybe in a little bit better spots to help clear him out as well. And so, I thought it was a number of things, but it wasn't a surprise that I think he kind of bounced back, and he had a really strong game here today.”

The Penguins practice on Sunday at 12 PM at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex before the 23-man opening-night roster is due on Monday at 5 PM.