TAMPA, Fla. -- Mike Sullivan said that newly-acquired forward Mikael Granlund's debut was a "tall task."
After being acquired in a trade with Nashville on Wednesday evening, Granlund made the four-hour drive across the state, having been in south Florida with the Panthers preparing for a game with the Predators at the time. He got into Tampa around 1 a.m., and was on the ice 10 hours later for a morning skate with his new team.
No full practice to really get acclimated to his linemates Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen, and not exactly running on a full-night's rest.
The coaching staff's plan was to ease Granlund into the lineup. With new systems and new teammates, they decided to hold off on adding Granlund to the power play just yet. But with Teddy Blueger traded and Brock McGinn sent down to the AHL, Granlund was needed as a penalty-killing forward, especially given that he can take faceoffs.
It was a lot to take in at once. But Granlund was up to the task, and by any measure had a pretty successful Penguins debut in the Penguins' 5-4 overtime win.
For all the struggles the Penguins' third line had earlier in the season, this might have been one of that line's better games. When they were on the ice, the Penguins controlled 78.34% of the expected goals, a stat that takes into account a number of factors that impacts the statistical likelihood of the shot being a goal -- distance and angle of the shot, whether it's off a rebound or rush, type of shot, time and score of the game, among others. It's the best way to measure an overall quality of a player, line or team's chances. No other Penguins' line had an expected goals for percentage above 65%.
The results were there -- when the third line was on the ice as an intact trio the Penguins had six shot attempts and allowed four. They took five unblocked shot attempts and allowed three. They outshot opponents 4-1 and outscored opponents 1-0, with the lone goal being Jeff Petry's second tally. Those results come despite the third line having one of the tougher deployments in the game, having five defensive zone faceoffs -- the most of any line.
Granlund played a part in that early on, like when he won a puck battle in the corner to set up a Carter chance:
Later that same period, Granlund had a great play to break up a Lightning chance and send play heading the other way:
Sullivan didn't exactly hesitate to throw Granlund out there in key situations -- he had 3:50 in shorthanded ice time, the most of any Penguins forward. He was out there for the 5-on-3 kill after back-to-back delay of game penalties by Kris Letang and Jeff Petry, and had a big clear near the end of the second period:
The Penguins were outshot 5-1 and outscored 2-0 when Granlund was out there on the penalty-kill, and this goal from Steven Stamkos just as a Lightning power play expired wasn't the best look for Granlund:
Other than that play, and other than the fact that Granlund didn't record any shots on goal himself, it's hard to find any real negatives to talk about in his debut. His coach ended up pretty impressed with his play.
"I thought he played well," Sullivan told me. "It was a tall task. We used him in a lot of key situations tonight, and he really hasn't had an opportunity to learn the subtleties or the details of how we're trying to play, we gave him an overall foundation. I could tell early on he’s got a lot of hockey sense, he’s got a high hockey IQ. I thought he played really well."
I caught up with Granlund one-on-one after the game to talk about how he thinks his debut went. He acknowledged that it's still a learning process for him, but felt good about the way things went.
"It was fun out there," he said. "Obviously there's a lot of things that I'm going to get more used to, but overall it was good. Obviously I got to play with some good players, and our team looks really good. I'm excited going forward."
That "good players" assessment was accurate tonight -- Carter's game even seemed to have a little boost in this one. He had five shot attempts and three shots on goal, as well as two assists. He drew a hooking penalty and went 11-7 in the faceoff circle. Granlund seemed to do a pretty good job of finding Carter on the ice despite the limited practice time together. I asked Granlund where he feels like his chemistry was with Carter and Heinen right off the bat.
"It was good," he said. "We had some chances, it was pretty good. That's going to get better when we get to know each other a little bit better. Just as a team, it looks like we have a really good team here. It's going to be fun moving forward."
It's far too early to say that the Penguins' third-line struggles are a thing of the past, or that the addition of Granlund was the only move needed by the Penguins this trade deadline to make the team a real contender. But early impressions are that the Penguins' third line is better off than it was a week ago.
