Baby Pens win 4-2 in Home Opener

Wyatt Smith, the veteran grinder of over 200 NHL games, made a great first impression and scored two nice looking goals and added one assist to start the season off on a good note.

Chris Conner was flying all over the ice, which is no surprise considering the strong preseason outing he had in the last few weeks.

Several Penguins prospects took part in their first career professional games tonight, including Eric Tangradi, Robert Bortuzzo, Zach Sill, Keven Veilleux and Brian Strait.

Bortuzzo was solid and very physical along the wall in the defensive zone. He played well, but showed his inexperience and young age with a few bad minor penalties.

Speedy center Joe Vitale was involved in his first pro fight tonight against regular scrapper Kevin Harvey after putting a huge hit on Syracuse’s Stefan Legein. He handled himself well, as evidenced in the recap video above. Vitale was also very tenacious and effective on the penalty kill (which killed 6 of the 7 opposing powerplays).

Luca Caputi was sporting jersey #17. He gave his previous number 19 to the veteran Smith out of respect.

Deryk Engelland and Nate Guenin played a strong game as the first defensive unit. Engelland mentioned in an earlier interview that WB/S had to create plays specifically designed to play against Guenin, when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phantoms.

Sophomore Dustin Jeffrey was playing the point on the PP tonight, but was invisible for most of the game. He also isn’t finishing any of his checks, which I marked down as one of his weaknesses in his player profile.

Tangradi looked a little tentative at times, but was effective down low and in front where he is expected to be. He had a few hard checks along the boards, and picked up his first pro point with an assist on Smith’s second goal.

The scratches were defenseman Alex Grant, and forwards Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Joey Haddad, Jesse Boulerice, and Aaron Boogaard.

John Curry picked up the win (1-0), and shed away 26 of the 28 shots.