The crowd roared its approval, and that was 10 minutes before the puck even dropped on Tuesday night's game against the Devils at PPG Paints Arena.
Just the mere mention of Derick Brassard's name or a shot of him on the jumbotron was enough to elicit a hearty round of applause from the faithful. For a Tuesday night in late February, there was a discernible buzz in the crowd of 18,581 and, clearly, they weren't there to see how the chemistry between Matt Hunwick and Jamie Oleksiak was progressing.
All eyes were on Brassard, Jim Rutherford's trade deadline prize wearing an unfamiliar black and gold jersey.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOWith Taylor Hall and the speedy Devils trailing the Penguins by just four points in the Metropolitan Division entering the night, it was a big game. But not in the sense of the "big game" that Brassard has built his reputation as one of the NHL's premier playoff performers. Those games will have to wait for April, May and, if everything goes right, June.
This was merely Brassard's first game with the Penguins and it was, well, nothing special if not a little odd. And not just odd because the 3-2 loss snapped an 11-game home winning streak.
But, in hindsight, Brassard's night should have been predictable.
He was playing with the benefit of just one -- extremely -- optional morning skate and some video pre-scouting for the Devils on Tuesday. And that was after arriving in Pittsburgh late the night before following a few days of immigration intrigue. Admittedly, there were some jitters, even for a 10-year-veteran.
Brassard's marching orders on Tuesday, though, were pretty much the same as a 10-year-old before an 8 a.m. game: "The message was to have fun out there," he said. And the record will show that Brassard's first shift included a faceoff loss to Jesper Bratt.
"Obviously, when nerves and emotion are part of it, usually you get tired a little quicker, but that's what I expected before the game," Brassard told me afterward.
What was a little surprising, though, was that his left winger, at least to start, was Conor Sheary, a player whose spot in the lineup would seem tenuous at best.
This whiff on a bouncing puck in the second period is just a microcosm of what's been just a brutal stretch for Sheary, who has now gone a dozen games without a goal:
And Brassard's left winger to finish was Riley Sheahan, a fellow center by trade. So much for rolling four lines and all that depth down the middle, eh? Not on this night anwyay. But that's another story.
Brassard's primary objective isn't gaining chemistry with Sheary or Sheahan (or Zach Aston-Reese, maybe), but rather who is on the other side: Phil Kessel.
Sometimes players, no matter how good, just don't fit together. You might recall that Kessel was to be Sidney Crosby's right winger in 2015, but that never did pan out, though that was more on the famously finicky captain.
If the Penguins are to maximize Rutherford's blockbuster trade, it's going to be with Brassard centering Kessel and the Penguins balancing out their three stars -- Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kessel -- over three lines. So, uh, how long does it take to build a working relationship?
"On my old team, it probably took a year-and-a-half before we got some good chemistry in Ottawa," Brassard said.
Don't worry. He was joking.
"We have, what, 19 games left?" he said. "We have to find some good chemistry here really quickly just to know where everyone is on the ice or where certain players like to stand or where they like the puck. That's something I need to adjust to. I was just trying to keep it as simple as much as I can out there. We had some good flashes as a team. I don't think we played well enough in the second period. We didn't put enough pucks on net to create chaos. We have to do a better job next game."
But it's not just new linemates -- whoever they might be -- that will take some getting used to. It's a culture change. For a player of considerable offensive pedigree, a player who has scored 55 playoff points since 2013, going from Ottawa's place in the standings to Pittsburgh is the equivalent of going from Motel 6 to the Ritz. Yeah, it's a bit of an adjustment.
Mike Sullivan's uptempo quick-transition, in-your-face game stands in stark, stark contrast to the counterpunching 1-3-1 trap championed for the Senators by Guy Boucher.
"It's not what I was used to playing in Ottawa," Brassard said. "Just everywhere. Defensive zone, neutral zone, offensive zone. For me, it's like really different. It's going to take me a couple games to get used to it and my linemates."
Now, none of this is to suggest that Brassard was bad Tuesday night or to make excuses. His final stat line will show that he played 16:58 (1:20 of it on the second power play). But in that time, it was fairly evident that Brassard comes as advertised. He's hard on pucks, plays a 200-foot game and plays with a grit not seen in the Penguins' other three centers.
He had two shots, won six of 13 faceoffs (46 percent) and threw four hits (second to only Oleksiak), including this one behind the net on Ben Lovejoy in the second period:
He also flashed some tremendous offensive instincts, nearly pulling off this amazing between-the-legs pass to Jake Guentzel on an early second-period power play:
If that had worked, it would have brought down the house. Instead the Devils brought down the Penguins, closing to within two points of Pittsburgh in a still-tight Metropolitan Division.
For Brassard, it was one to build off. Not 15 minutes after his first game as a Penguin, he was already looking forward to Wednesday's practice in Cranberry Township, his first with his new team.
"I'm happy that the first game is behind me so I can look forward to tomorrow," Brassard said.
If that's the worst Brassard can do, oh, the Penguins will be fine.
"For a first game, I thought he had good energy, made some plays," Sullivan said. "I think he's only going to get better as we move forward."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Devils, PPG Paints Arena, Feb. 28, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS