Kovacevic: All this defensive depth unprecedented

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Brian Dumoulin's a matchup man at heart.

And on a single scrimmage shift on the Penguins' second day of training camp at the Lemieux Sports Complex, he was the kid on Christmas morning.

First came Patric Hornqvist down the right side, broaching the blue line and set to attempt what could generously be described as a very camp-like move. Rather than the standard, straight-line Hornqvist route, he'd try to slip the puck to the inside, 66-style, and devastate his team's top one-on-one defenseman.

That didn't go well, as this photo-composite by our Matt Sunday illustrates:

"Yeah, no, that wasn't gonna happen," Dumoulin would tell me later.

It really wasn't. Dumoulin had his stick forward, as ever, but that didn't restrict him from using his skates -- which he does better than anyone on the roster other than Sidney Crosby -- to intercept the puck, kick it to his blade, whirl and flip it from the zone.

Then came the next gift.

The puck was retrieved in the neutral zone, and it was Matt Cullen's turn to try something Cullen would never try in an NHL game. He saw Dumoulin coming across a little late, and he, too, slipped the puck through Dumoulin's legs ... and he nearly got away with it, except that Dumoulin again used his skate to intercept, kick to the blade, and right back up the rink he went:

"That was fun," Dumoulin would beam. "The whole day was fun."

For the defensive guys, sure. The score wound up 1-0, and it wasn't just because the backup goaltenders were sharp. The defensemen themselves were ... well, they were what they should be all winter long.

"It's a really talented group, and I think we all realize that," Dumoulin said. "You look around this room, the people we've got on the blue line, the depth, the different sides a lot of guys can play, the power play, the PK ..."

He didn't need to finish. This defense has the capability to be better than either that claimed the past two Stanley Cup championships, arguably the best of the Crosby era, and certainly deeper. It's not close, actually, regardless of how the pairings align. Here's how they've been the first couple days here:

Olli Maatta-Kris Letang

Jack Johnson-Justin Schultz

Brian Dumoulin-Juuso Riikola

That's not to omit Jamie Oleksiak and Chad Ruhwedel, but they've both been interchangeable with young prospects, and that'll rotate as camp continues.

Those are the eight. And it's really eight because, as Riikola showed again and again and again for a second consecutive day, he's the real deal.

I'm not about to lose my mind and approach comparing this group to those in Nashville and now San Jose, though it's been amusing to see those teams' Twitter accounts poking each other since the Erik Karlsson trade:

No, but there can be four. pic.twitter.com/Mo1R2Tvi8I

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) September 13, 2018

Karlsson joins Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic with the Sharks, and the Predators were already loaded with P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis. The Penguins are up two-nil on those franchises in Stanley Cup Final encounters, but they can't line up their current defense with either of those.

Still ...

Letang's healthy, happy and just flying. His skating on this day was the best I'd seen from him in any setting in quite some time. And even Mr. Self-Deprecation couldn't help but concede that when I brought it up.

"I do feel really good," he told me. "That felt great."

Maatta's healthy, happy and maybe a little more grown up. I'm hearing more outward joking, engaging with teammates and a lot, in addition, that had been glaringly absent even through the Cup years. Kid's been through hell and back. Understandable.

"This is just hockey," he was telling me a couple days ago. "This is easy."

Schultz was good enough to be the No. 1 defenseman on a championship team that allegedly didn't have a No. 1 defenseman in Letang's absence. He's exorcised Edmonton from his bloodstream. He's a complete defenseman now and, maybe most impressive, he's proficient enough on the power play to bump Letang from the top unit.

Not that he'd care one way or the other.

"Tanger's the leader of our group," Schultz said. "We all look up to him. We all follow him."

Johnson's the new guy, and he's undergoing his own exorcism — his of Columbus, John Tortorella and all related maladies. It won't be quick, and it won't be easy. Sergei Gonchar's spent more time with Johnson than anyone on the roster, including sitting next to him in the locker room after the extended first session. But no one's approached the job with greater visible joy than Johnson.

"I know you're tired of hearing this," he told me even though I wasn't, "but I'm so happy to be here."

Good for him. Every Blue Jacket deserves a chance to win an actual playoff series at some point in his life.

Oleksiak's been excellent, as I wrote after Day 1, maybe the best defenseman in the first scrimmage. He's close to cemented as top-six, but he evidently didn't assume as much.

"It feels positive, and that's nice because I feel like I did the work necessary to come in here and compete," Oleksiak told me after that session. "This was a really good summer for me."

Ruhwedel's the apparent odd-man out, but his demeanor's been anything but, on or off the ice. In drills, he's been as physical as the prospects -- and honestly, that's only expected of the prospects at this natal stage of camp -- and he's spoken all the right words, too.

"My approach is that I'm here to make the top six," he told me before it got going. "I'll do my best, and I'll be ready."

Riikola's last on the list, but he's been dynamite through two days. Hate to keep going on about him, but there he was again Saturday, all over the ice, pinching, pushing the attack, taking hits to make plays and effortlessly advancing the puck where it needed to go next. The latter facet actually stood out more than anything on this day. One simple decision, and boom, it's done.

I doubt he'll open up in Pittsburgh. He doesn't have to clear waivers, since it's his first season in North America, so he can move up and down from Wilkes-Barre while no other defenseman can. Also, I've been told now by two sources that the Penguins feel that, no matter how well he shows here, he'd benefit from some AHL time purely to adjust to the rinks being smaller than in Finland, where the international sheets are standard.

Regardless, he's not a depth player as much as he is actual depth.

I asked Johnson, as close to an impartial observer as available, to compare the depth against the league.

"Well, I would hope people are looking at us with some respect," he replied. "These guys here have obviously achieved a lot, and they deserve that. And I think what's here now ... what stands out for me is just all the great skaters. That's the thing. We've got a lot of people who can move and who can move the puck. That's what you need in today's game."

• This hasn't been Evgeni Malkin's week. On Tuesday, he was high-sticked by a teammate early in an informal skate and forced to leave the session. On Saturday, he was high-sticked by a teammate early in a scrimmage and forced to leave the session.

It's enough to prompt a guy to angrily fling his stick into the boards, which is exactly what Malkin did on this day after Cullen's inadvertent clip cost him two front teeth on the first shift. He was back four minutes later and, amusingly, Cullen offered him a hug the next time those two lined up for a draw.

Cullen told me he felt awful about Malkin's pending dentistry: "My stick rode up and ... ugh, there's no worse feeling than seeing your teammate on the ice. Especially when it's Geno. The way you feel ..."

• Because the public demands this level of intrepid hockey coverage, I humbly offer 20 seconds of Malkin vs. Phil Kessel in a one-on-one drill:

You're welcome.

• Neither Malkin nor Kessel was in the locker room while it was open to the media. Neither has spoken yet.

• Crosby and Johnson, once schoolmates in Minnesota and friends ever since, had that play out on the ice for the first time with their own one-on-one drill, an animated sequence that saw both barking and laughing throughout.

"It'll be like that forever," Johnson told me afterward with a big smile. "We'll be like the 15-year-old versions of ourselves anytime that happens."

• The session overall was far chippier than the first. Zach Aston-Reese was bloodied, too, though his came from a flipped puck by Letang. He was able to laugh about it right away -- recently-healed broken jaw and all -- and afterward.

"Rough day for a lot of guys," Aston-Reese said.

• Totally off-topic, but it came up: Of all the opponents Matt Murray faces, whose shot comes with the most action, meaning soccer-type movement?

He surprised me with the response.

"Definitely Alexander Ovechkin. His does this ..." at which point he held his right hand vertically to show a flutter movement that's hard to describe. "People talk about his release and everything, but it also moves."

• Oh, that lone goal of the scrimmage came from Nate Haggerty with 11.4 seconds left. Taylor Haase has that covered in her daily coverage of the prospects, but I'll just add that Garrett Wilson clocked Hollidaysburg's Sam Lafferty with such ferocity right before that goal that his helmet went flying. Poor kid had his head down after an outlet pass, and the journeyman Wilson seized a chance to impress.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY