Faceoff Factor

Penguins Training Camp – Day #2 Report

Jesse Marshall | Pittsburgh Penguins

Sep 18, 02:06 PM | Hype this story!

Before we get into the individual player notes, let’s run down the lines and the scrimmage.

First off, Rob Scuderi was noticeably absent from both practices and the scrimmage. No word on his status as of yet, but I’ll keep you updated if I get a report.

Team White:

Offense:

Miroslav Satan – Sidney Crosby – Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke – Max Talbot – Ruslan Fedotenko
Luca Caputi – Kris Beech – Eric Godard
Tim Wallace – Chris Minard – Mark Letestu

Defense:

Sergei Gonchar – Brooks Orpik
Darryl Sydor – Alex Goligoski
Danny Richmond – Ben Lovejoy

Goal:

John Curry
Dany Sabourin

Team Black:

Offense:

Jordan Staal – Evgeni Malkin – Petr Sykora
Janne Pesonen – Jeff Taffe – Tyler Kennedy
Adam Henrich – Bill Thomas – Connor James
Paul Bissionette – Dave Gove – Derek Boogaard

Defense:

Kristopher Letang – Mark Eaton
Joey Mormina – Derek Engellend
TJ Kemp – Hal Gill

Goal:

David Brown
Marc-Andre Fleury

Scrimmage rundown:

John Curry and David Brown started the game for Team White and Black respectively. There was no scoring in the first period.

The second period experienced quite a few starts and stops to get things going. Dany Sabourin took the net for Team White and Marc-Andre Fleury took the net for team black. The puck stayed in team whites corner for the duration of the beginning of the 2nd. Sabourin was sharp in net, making two key deflection saves.

The first goal of the game was scored by Team White’s Ben Lovejoy. Danny Richmond made this entire play happen. Team White had the puck in the offensive zone and there was a LW out of position. Richmond skated forward, grabbed the puck and skated down the wing, creating his own offensive chance. He threw it in front of the net where Luca Caputi took a shot, got his own rebound, and tossed it back to the point, where Lovejoy beat a sprawled out Marc-Andre Fleury just above his right pad.

Team White closed out the scoring in the third period on a nice tic-tac-toe play by the potential third line. Matt Cooke threw a puck into the zone to Max Talbot, who fed it to the opposite side of the goal where a wide open Ruslan Fedotenko tapped it home. The play was a result of a bad change by Team Black.

The final score was 2-0 in favor of Team White.

There was only one penalty assessed during the game, and that was to Adam Henrich for high-sticking Sergei Gonchar. Gonchar missed his penalty shot attempt as he tried to deke Marc-Andre Fleury via five-hole.

Individual Player Musings and Thoughts:

The Penguins ought to be happy with their goaltending situation right now. Marc-Andre Fleury was as sharp as a tack today during the drills. The Staal-Malkin-Sykora line was throwing a ton of shots his way and Fleury exhibited great focus and agility throughout. None of the goals that were scored on him in the scrimmage were saveable. On the other end of the ice, Dany Sabourin had a great day as well. Sabourin has yet to allow a goal during scrimmage play and looked focused and sharp during the drills as well.

Jonathan D’Aversa partook in both sets of practices today, filling in for Rob Scuderi on Team Black. He spent time on a pairing with Joey Mormina during the drills and they seemed to really feed off of each other.

Much of this morning’s practice was marred by a bad ice surface. Pucks were bouncing like tennis balls and several guys had a hard time staying up on the rough conditions.

Aaron Boogaard seems to be pretty mobile for a guy of his type. He was cutting to the net today with good speed and created a few chances in both the drills and the scrimmage.

The Penguins coaching staff put a huge premium on the forecheck today. They ran a drill where each assistant coach was placed in a corner of the rink. A team of three forecheckers would dump the puck into the zone, pressure the coaches, and create turnovers off the pressure. The coach on the far side would receive the dump in, and send it behind the net to the other coach, who would then try to clear. Michel Therrien brought the drill to a halt halfway through to reinforce the idea of “re-attacking”, as in directing your focus from one player to another. Instead of standing around waiting for a pass, get to the puck and force the turnover with token pressure. It was a drill that would have been beneficial during the Detroit series.

Out of all the Penguins on the ice today, Kristopher Letang looked the sharpest. He was shutting down forwards during the one on one drills and created several scoring chances in the scrimmage via his playmaking and shooting abilities.

The Penguins put a heavy emphasis on deflections this morning as well, and I have to say that I was generally impressed with the ability of the forwards when it came to swatting pucks.

Jordan Staal looks reinvigorated this year. He seems to have approached this camp much differently than last year’s. He has a serious jump in his step and his stick-handling abilities were on display today yet again.

Tyler Kennedy seems like he gained a step in the offseason, his skating was fantastic today.

This camp is going to be an uphill battle for Janne Pesonen. What I’ve seen from Pesonen, I’ve liked, but it’s not enough to insert him in the lineup over any of the other players we have right now. I don’t think there’s enough time here for Pesonen to make enough of an impact to replace one of the regulars.

I mentioned Danny Richmond yesterday, and he had another solid day today. He created the rush that generated the first Team White goal and had an exact copy of that play later in the third that was almost converted as well. What is most impressive about Richmond, aside from his quickness, is his ability to consistently put passes tape to tape.

This could be the end of the line for Jonathan Filewich. After a rather unimpressive first day, Filewich was held out of the scrimmage along with Joey Haddad and Casey Pierro-Zabotel. Filewich seems to have lost a step somewhere. This year is do or die for him, so he’d better find it fast.

Pittsburgh native Bill Thomas had a few blazing shots today, but there was one problem: none of them hit the net.

Miroslav Satan didn’t find his way onto the scoresheet, but he exhibited some great stickhandling skills one on one. Crosby found him twice today and he couldn’t convert either chance.

On the humorous side of things, WB/S head coach Dan Bylsma may have a future career in goaltending. At the end of Team Black’s practice, Jordan Staal and Kristopher Letang were passing the puck back and forth around the net. Coach Bylsma grabbed a stick and immediately headed into the net acting like a goalie. Staal and Letang passed back and forth, as Bylsma continually broke up scoring chance after scoring chance. Just when it seemed as if Staal was about to score, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury intervened and lifted the stick of Staal out of nowhere. Staal then had to deal with Fleury defending him for the next minute or so. Finally, Kristopher Letang tapped the puck past Bylsma, while Jordan Staal let out a loud “Whoop!”.

Head Coach Michel Therrien took a nasty spill in the afternoon practice after getting run into by Keven Veilleux, Andre Savard took over running the drills. Therrien eventually returned.

If you have any questions about specific players, post them in comments and I’ll get to them as soon as I can.

Stay tuned for more camp coverage tomorrow!