Penguins/Lightning recap

[mr_mich]

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Pens/Lightning preseason game last night and figured I\'d share my impressions with everyone. I\'m a Pens fan, so I apologize for being a bit biased

Fleury\'s performance was underwhelming. He let in a few flukey/soft goals, and his shootout performance was HORRENDOUS. Granted, Jokinen and Stamkos have some sweet moves, but Fleury basically just rolled over. He did seem to do pretty well with rebound control and seeing the puck through traffic though, and made some saves he had no business making.

Goligoski looked sharp, but a little eager. He made a few defensive gaffes by trying to jump in on the rush. Still, I have no doubt that he\'ll follow in Letang\'s footsteps, and also has a cannon of a shot.

Malkin/Sykora/Staal were disgusting as a line, and caused problems for the lightning all night. Staal is DEFINITELY trying to earn his big contract, and he\'s got some hustle in his step. He scored a goal 51 seconds into the game with a laser of a shot. Sykora and Malkin still click just as well, and Sykora\'s 2-goal night was well-earned, with even more chances that he didn\'t capitalize on. Finally, Malkin had an off night...whiffing on one-timers and missing the net, it\'s clear he wasn\'t putting in 100%.

Crosby deserves a paragraph of his own. He somehow looks even faster, even stronger, and his promises to start shooting more have already bore fruit. He shot on a couple 2 on 1\'s, which took the goalie by surprise and resulted in his short-handed goal. He sprung himself on LOTS of chances on the penalty kill, and I\'m excited to see him there year-round.

Satan looked good, but not as good as he\'s looked in training camp and scrimmages. He\'s definitely a crafty player with a good set of wheels, and I can tell he\'ll thrive. He didn\'t connect on anything really, but I\'m expecting big things from him this season.

Pesonen didn\'t look that out of place in terms of comfort or skills, despite being on a line with Jeff Taffe and Kris Beech. He had a few good takeaways, and had a disallowed goal. He also notched an assist. The guy has REALLY good wheels and can stickhandle in a phonebooth, unfortunately I didn\'t get to see him shoot much or see him work the shootout. One thing I would like to point out is that he\'s NOT used to the physicality of the north american game, and it showed. He bounced off of Tampa\'s smaller players, and frequently just got moved off the puck. This will be the biggest obstacle for him to overcome.

Brooks Orpik looked solid, he\'s definitely gotten better positionally and is smarter with the puck. Even better still, his skating somehow has improved to the point where I wouldn\'t consider it a particular weakness of his anymore. Of course, he earned every cent of that new contract by handing out free candy.

On to Tampa...

They iced a pretty bland lineup, with the most exciting players being Jokinen and Stamkos. Stamkos didn\'t really sparkle throughout the game. I was really excited to see him but was pretty disappointed in how invisible he was on the ice. He had a few good dekes and such, but he got absolutely destroyed by some of the Pens younger defensemen like Goligoski and Lovejoy.

Ramo looked brilliant. He robbed a lot of players, and the goals he did allow were from laser shots by the Pens players. If I were a lightning fan, I\'d be really excited to have this kid come up and show what he\'s worth.

The Lightning mainly played prospects and players from their 7th line. It was an AHL squad that somehow managed to beat the Pens\' all-star lineup (which included their top 2 lines and most of their offensive defensemen) and everyone was wondering how. The answer was size, and nobody displayed it more than Artyukhin. This guy was all over the place, and the Pens didn\'t know how to deal with him. Even guys like Malkin and Satan were rattled by this guy\'s size, and Tampa has plenty of it to toss around. The Penguins might have trouble playing against teams with size that play a more conservative style of defense. The lightning collapsed and the Penguins couldn\'t force or dipsy-doodle their way in, limiting them to lots of perimeter shots.

Sorry for the length, but I was pretty excited to go to the arena and get ready for another season. I know that it\'s tough to keep after 30 teams\' camps and preseason and such, and thought I\'d give a good overview. I\'ll be at the Pens/Leafs game on Wednesday too and will be sure to report back on that one.

[SPOILER]

Thanks for the play by play Mr. Mich!! Nice summary. Always looking to see how teams/players play in the pre-season.

Cheers, +1

[VintageVibe]

Lightning didn\'t even have there top line playing (lecav, stlouis, prospal) and STILL won against, what looked like, Pens starting roster...now THATS preseason hockey for you.

[Ari]

Very nice report, thanks!

[GretzGreatzky]

Gonchar apparently hurt his shoulder, left the game, no indication of seriousness.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08265/913957-61.stm

[elTIGREblanc]

Good stuff Mich... That\'s exactly the kind of excellent reporting I want from forum users when they scout pre-season games for the rest of us! I guess I\'m going to have to go to the Phoenix - Calgary game now and take notes!

I have a feeling that Staal, Sykora and Goligoski are in for big years, by their standards... All 3 are moving up my draft list...

thanks again!