Team White defeated team Black 4-3 in the Black and Gold scrimmage, Wednesday night. Matt Cooke scored twice, Tyler Kennedy, and Brandon Sutter scored for team Black. Beau Bennett, Chris Kunitz, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin scored for team White. The scrimmage included pre-planned 5 on 5, 5 on 4, 4 on 4, 5 on 3 and 4 on 3 situations for both teams. Despite team White leading at the end of regulation, the squads played a five minute overtime followed by a shootout.
Here are some notes from the scrimmage:
The lockout had no affect on Pittsburgh’s passion of hockey. The Penguins offered fans a free ticket to watch the scrimmage while the game was televised on ROOT Sports. The arena was packed to capacity, with fans lining up two hours before the doors opened at six. Fans seemed deeply engaged in the action on the ice, cheering every goal, leading chants of “Let’s go Pens” and “Flyers suck.”
Brandon Sutter is for real. The biggest piece of the Jordan Staal trade set up Cooke for both goals including a shorthanded tally in the second period. He also had a slick goal in overtime in front of Tomas Vokoun and a shootout goal. His defensive prowess against Evgeni Malkin was very encouraging as well; Sutter earned the first star of the game.
Eric Tangradi’s time with Malkin and Neal may be short-lived. Tangradi looked very sluggish, struggling to win puck battles in the corner. Meanwhile, Beau Bennett, Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke all scored and brought a much higher energy level than Tangradi. Dustin Jeffrey also played well and has an outside chance to end up on the second line.
Beau Bennett had a solid “game.” The California native looked quite comfortable playing with, and against, some of the top players in the world. Bennett tucked the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury early in the first period, showing why he led the Wilkes-Baare Penguins in scoring this season. At times, he seemed to take his foot off the gas, but overall, the kid looks closer and closer to NHL-ready.
Any thought of having Kris Letang and Simon Despres as a defensive pairing should be forgotten immediately, based on this scrimmage. The duo was burned by Matt Cooke very early in the game. They also failed to clear out the crease in overtime, leading to Sutter’s goal. Despres struggled for most of the game while Letang seemed to get stronger as the game went on.
Brooks Orpik looked good. Orpik was recovering from sports hernia surgery last year and his physical game was lacking. Not so much this time around. Orpik leveled Warren Peters in the first period, then knocked down Pascal Dupuis in the third period. The pairing of Orpik and Martin did an excellent job against the Dupuis-Crosby-Kunitz line.
Marc-Andre Fleury looked a little uncomfortable in the first period, but got significantly stronger as the game went on. If the Penguins want to get out to a good start, they’ll need Fleury to play well starting Saturday against Philadelphia.
The top power play unit looked disorganized. James Neal did not look good on the point and the
Penguins were frequently unable to get anything going. While the power play should improve as the season progresses, it could be a major issue playing against a Flyers club that produced four short handed goals in the playoffs.
The Penguins will be off on Thursday, followed by a short practice on Friday before playing the Flyers on Saturday. A season preview will be up before the puck drops Saturday afternoon.
Photo courtesy of ESPN
