10 Thoughts: Puljujarvi's hat trick, McGroarty's debut in preseason opener

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As Mike Sullivan would say, "it's a tough one to assess."

The Penguins -- or more accurately, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton -- dropped their preseason opener to the Sabres, 7-3 on Saturday evening in Buffalo, N.Y. It was largely an AHL-heavy lineup against a team dressing its NHL starters, and it played out pretty closely to the way one might expect, given the circumstances.

But if there's one takeaway to be had here, it's that Jesse Puljujarvi can't be overlooked when it comes to figuring out which forwards round out the Penguins' roster over the next few weeks.

It's exhibition. And it wasn't exactly a close game. But a hat trick is a hat trick, and Puljujarvi deserves to come away from this one feeling pretty pleased with himself.

"It was a tough loss," Puljujarvi said. "The guys played really good. I think they were really hard in every puck battle, one-on-one. But, I mean, I don't have too many hat tricks, so."

Puljujarvi opened the scoring early, parking himself in front of the net on the power play and redirecting a pass from Ville Koivunen to beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen:

The third goal to cap off the hat trick was a laser of a shot:

But it was the second goal that was perhaps the most encouraging -- flying up the right wing, cutting to the net-front before burying the goal -- because it highlighted his skating:

That's meaningful for Puljujarvi, who this time last year was still working his way back from double hip surgery. Asked if he could have scored that goal a year ago, Puljujarvi said, "No chance. It's good to be back."

Puljujarvi says he feels as if he's just able to have much more motion than he did pre-surgery, and on top of that he no longer feels pain. He's back to being 100%, and he's looking to be back in the NHL full-time.

Puljujarvi had an OK season last year. Joining Wilkes-Barre on a tryout contract as part of his rehab process, he played in 13 AHL games and scored four goals and five assists before getting a real NHL contract. He had three goals and an assist in 22 games in a bottom-six capacity -- not the kind of impact Sullivan is hoping for from forwards, even in the bottom six -- but a pretty decent showing given the circumstances of the surgery. He went on to play for Finland in the World Championship when the season ended, racking up three goals and two assists in eight games.

Even though Puljujarvi started to carve out a role for himself last season, it's now going to be significantly harder to make the roster. There's much more competition this time around.

If the top six is some combination of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting and Drew O'Connor. That leaves a lot of players competing for the remaining six (or seven, with an extra) forward spots: Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass, Lars Eller, Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte, Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Nieto (when healthy), Rutger McGroarty, Valtteri Puustinen, Sam Poulin, Vasily Ponomarev, Emil Bemstrom, Jonathan Gruden, and Puljujarvi. 

"It's going to be tough," Puljujarvi said of the task ahead of him. "You have so many good guys here fighting for the same spots. You have to just give every day your best, be positive and be really disciplined every day. You just need to trust yourself."

Even aside from the three goals, Mike Sullivan saw some things to like in Puljujarvi's first game of the preseason. He was impressed with Puljujarvi's forechecking and work in puck battles, and just ability to be strong on the puck all night. All things you'd definitely want in a third- or fourth-line winger.

There's still a lot of time left in the Penguins' training camp, and other candidates for the openings at forward will surely make some compelling cases of their own over the next few weeks. But Puljujarvi's certainly set himself up to be near the top of the list early.

BUFFALO SABRES

Valtteri Puustinen battles for a puck with Connor Clifton Saturday night in Buffalo, N.Y.

2. Joel Blomqvist got the start. And while teams often use the preseason as an opportunity to split the game between two of their younger goaltenders, the plan this morning was for Blomqvist to play the full 60 ... but things didn't exactly work out as intended. Blomqvist's first period was great, stopping 15 of his first 16 shots. Things fell off entirely in the second period, and Blomqvist stopped just three of eight shots before being yanked, probably more so for his own sake. Most of the goals to beat Blomqvist came from a distance.

"It's a tough league, for sure," Blomqvist told me after the game. "But it was a good experience to see what it's all about. Now, just learn from what happened and come back better."

Blomqvist didn't have an answer regarding what changed for him between the first and second period, saying it's "hard to tell" and he'd have to wait to review the game footage with the coaches.

3. Filip Larsson finished the game in relief and handled himself well, stopping 18 of 19 shots. Larsson, 26, signed a two-year deal with the Penguins this summer in free agency. Last season was his first in the SHL, and he was great, recording a 1.93 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage along with five shutouts in 28 games. Before that, he spent time in lower-level leagues like the second-tier Swedish league or the Danish league. His one pro season in North America was in 2019-20 in the Red Wings' system and he spent most of it in the ECHL. Obviously a good showing here tonight, and he has one good season in Sweden under his belt, but he might end up finding himself behind Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov on the depth chart. 

4. The Sabres, again, dressed most of their NHL regulars. The reason for doing that is because they head to Germany and Czechia soon for the Global Series, and so their whole camp process is sped up as they have a shorter time frame to decide who is making that trip to Europe to start the season. It doesn't exactly make for a fun matchup for the Penguins, but it is a good opportunity for the Penguins' young players to have a taste of what it's like to play against NHL players. One of the players who got to do that for the first time was Rutger McGroarty, who skated on the left side of the top line next to Drew O'Connor and Cody Glass, and on the top power play with O'Connor, Glass, Valtteri Puustinen and Mac Hollowell. He had the primary assist on Puljujarvi's second goal, the one that came on the power play.

"Personally, I feel like I made some good plays offensively," McGroarty told me of his debut. "I'd say the main thing for me to focus on is the defensive side of the game. I feel like I am a 200-foot player. But tonight, it's just understanding the systems, where to go and when. But offensively, I feel like I had some good puck touches."

Sullivan said he thought McGroarty "did a pretty good job."

"His hockey sense is evident," Sullivan said. "It's just getting used to the pace of play, the strength of the NHL players, just things like that. It's an adjustment. That's what separates the NHL from any other league in the world. Every player, in my experience, regardless of how good they are, when they first start to play in this league, there's an adjustment. And so I thought he handled himself really well, but certainly he was one of those guys that this is his first look at NHL-caliber play."

5. This was the first opportunity to see Tanner Howe period, after the Penguins' 2024 second-round pick had to miss the Prospects Challenge with a facial injury sustained in the offseason. Still wearing a full shield, he skated on the fourth line with Jimmy Huntington and Avery Hayes. He took a high-sticking double-minor in the first period that proved to be costly and resulted in the Sabres' first goal, but he was otherwise pretty noticeable for good reasons. He's a guy who tries to play like a "rat," and he did that a little here despite being fresh off an injury. He didn't shy away when things got chippy, recorded one hit and two blocked shots. He had three shots on goal, tied for the team lead.

"One of the things that I said before the game is one of the expectations when you wear a Penguins jersey is we expect all our guys to have a high compete level," Sullivan said. "Competitive spirit is something that we pride ourselves in and that's brought this organization a lot of success, certainly in my time here. And I thought (Howe) was one of the guys. I thought he competed hard."

6. Hollowell was one of the brighter spots on defense. Hollowell, who turns 26 years old next week and is listed at 5 foot 9 and 170 pounds, has spent the bulk of his five-year professional career in the AHL, but did play six NHL games for the Maple Leafs in 2022-23. He's on a one-year, two-way NHL contract with the Penguins, but seems like a long shot to make the roster given the other options available. Something that might help his case is he's one of the few right-handed options available, and really the next-best righty after Jack St. Ivany.

"He's got really good offensive instincts," Sullivan said of Hollowell. "I thought he did a good job on the on the power play the first period. He makes some outlet passes, he was trying to manage his gaps. You know, he's not an overly big guy, so he's got to win pucks with his smarts and his stick and his skill level. He's got to win pucks differently than some bigger guys. I thought that he played to his strengths in that regard."

7. Another quietly good game: Tristan Broz. Broz, who was one of the Penguins' best players in the Prospects Challenge, centered the second line with Puljujarvi and Puustinen tonight, and skated on the second power play with Puljujarvi, Harrison Brunicke, Ville Koivunen and Emil Bemstrom. He was far and away the Penguins' best center in the faceoff dot, winning 57.9% of his draws, compared to Huntington's 50%, O'Connor's 43.8%, and Vasily Ponomarev's 21.4%. He had the secondary assists on Puljujarvi's first and third goals, one shot on goal, one takeaway, two hits and two blocked shots. He'd get involved in some post-whistle extra curriculars, including standing up to 6-foot-4, 224-pound defenseman Mattias Samuelsson.

8. This game got chippy as it went on, in part because of the score and in part because of it being a bunch of depth guys against an NHL squad. Broz, Puljujarvi and John Ludvig were at the center of it more than anyone else, it seemed. Things were amplified when Nicolas Aube-Kubel hit Ponomarev high and from behind into the boards early in the third period. Ponomarev stayed down for some time and an athletic trainer came out to tend to him, but he skated off under his own power and didn't even leave the game. 

9. This is already far too much thought put into an exhibition game, especially given that it's the first one, especially given the differences in the two rosters. Sullivan thought it was a "tough one to assess" even for the players who did pretty well. At its core, this was just an opportunity for everyone to get their legs under them after a long summer, and an opportunity for some young guys to get a tiny glimpse of the NHL. There are six more of these to go. They'll get more meaningful as the real stuff approaches.

10. Arguably the most interesting Penguins-related thing on Saturday didn't happen here at all, but in Dallas. The Stars shared this picture from their press box during a preseason game, and it showed Joe Pavelski in town ... wearing a Penguins hat, of all things:

DALLAS STARS

Pavelski retired this summer after an 18-season NHL career that was split between the Sharks and Stars. He hasn't taken a job yet since retiring, but it doesn't seem like there's much to read into there.

The UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex hosts the USHL Fall Classic each year, and Pavelski was in Pittsburgh for that with his son's team. The Penguins gave Pavelski's son's team a tour of the facilities, and while that was going on, Pavelski stopped in to say hello to his former Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, who now works for the Penguins as a hockey operations advisor, and also took some time to stop and chat with Kyle Dubas, Jason Spezza and Trevor Daley. Patrick Marleau was in town for the event too, and also swung by to catch up with some people too. As for the origin of the hat, the Penguins' equipment staff didn't give it to Pavelski, and Penguins representatives had no idea why he had it on, with one offering the explanation "it's a cool hat." Sometimes a cool hat can just be a cool hat.