Haase: Sid shows up for kids, Malkin's hat trick, Imama drops 'em

SUDBURY, Ontario -- Sidney Crosby remembers the first time he got to see the NHL up close. It was the 90s, and Halifax was hosting a neutral-site preseason game between the Devils and Bruins. 

For a kid growing up far away from an NHL market, the neutral-site game made the NHL finally feel real.

"It felt like it was another planet before that," Crosby recalled Sunday at the Sudbury Community Arenao. "I hadn't seen an NHL game, and didn't think I necessarily would."

The NHL's annual Hockeyville game provides that same opportunity to smaller towns, allowing kids who might not otherwise see NHL games up close in their own community. Elliot Lake, Ontario, won the event this year, and the game was held two hours down the road at this OHL rink that's home to the Sudbury Wolves. It's an intimate single-bowl arena that seats about 5,000 fans, giving each one of them an up-close and personal view of NHL stars.

Crosby's been one of those kids before at a game like this, and he can relate.

"I know what these preseason games mean," he said. "I know what it meant to me. I'm sure what it means to people here in the community. You could feel that when you got here. That's the moment I look back on, to be in this position and playing in town like this, you're grateful for that opportunity."

Crosby and the Penguins gave the Sudbury community a real show, with his two goals and Evgeni Malkin's hat trick giving the Penguins a 5-2 win over the Senators.

After the Senators took an early 1-0 lead courtesy of a Nick Cousins goal, Crosby scored the equalizer, going to the net and redirecting in a pass from Kris Letang

After a tying goal from the Senators' Tim Stutzle in the first, Malkin scored a tying goal and the go-ahead goal in the second. Crosby made it a 4-2 game on the power play to open the scoring in the third period, parking himself in front of the net and burying a pass from Bryan Rust:

It was the first preseason game for Crosby, and it's fair to say he's got a decent chance of cracking the NHL lineup out of camp. For him, this game was about just making sure he has his legs under him as the real games approach. And, yeah, he's ready.

"It was good to get into one," he said. "Obviously, it's been a while. It was a nice atmosphere and a bit of a physical game, too. So good all around just to get into one."

It's hard to quantify, but the neutral-site crowd seemed to tilt heavily in the Penguins' favor, as evidenced by the cheers and the number of jersey around. Almost all of those Penguins jerseys had a No. 87 on the back, unsurprisingly. Mike Sullivan remarked this morning that traveling with Crosby in Canada is like traveling with The Beatles, responding to the reception he got just getting off of the bus for the morning skate. 

Crosby was humbled by the whole experience.

"To be still playing and to get that kind of support, I think it means a lot," Crosby said. "You look at different experiences over the years, and I don't think that stuff ever gets old when you're in positions like this. It's a preseason game, you haven't played in five months. I think it's definitely motivating when you have a turnout like we did, and you see how excited people are to see an NHL game up close. I think that's something that sticks with you, and it was a great welcome. We appreciate the hospitality. It's a great hockey community, and hopefully we put on a good show for them here."

It was a great show, and Crosby really was at the forefront of it. One has to wonder if he helped any future NHL players realize today that the NHL really isn't "another planet," much like the realization he got 30 years ago.

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2. And of course, Malkin's hat trick. His pair of goals came in the second period, the first off a bouncing puck:

His second goal came off a backhand:

Malkin completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal.

If the Penguins are going to contend for anything other than a first-overall pick in the near future, they're going to need their stars to be stars. This was just an exhibition game, but it's encouraging from Malkin for sure. A wild stat from Bob Grove, too: Before tonight, Malkin had three goals in his last 18 preseason games combined. This was his first preseason hat trick.

In peak Malkin fashion, he wasn't available to speak after a dominant performance in a win. He's in mid-season form. He'd frequently make himself available to answer for tough losses last season. But wins? Forget about it. He put in his time for the day already. Off the clock.

3. For some who followed the Penguins last season, a game with multiple power play goals might have felt like another planet. But the top unit of Letang, Malkin, Crosby, Rust and Rickard Rakell teamed up for two goals in the win -- Malkin's first goal and Crosby's second.

While that was encouraging, Letang acknowledged that the man advantage is still a "work in progress."

"We're working on different things, different looks," Letang told me. "It was cool to get rewarded tonight, especially because we're working on a lot of goals down low. That's how it happened. It was good to see."

Sullivan called it "real encouraging" to see this kind of early success under the new David Quinn-led power play.

"With some of the things that Quinn's working with them in practice, we've seen it come to fruition tonight," Sullivan said. "I think it's something they can build on, it certainly should be able to boost the confidence. It should provide some affirmation an evidence that if we have the right intentions out there and we execute, we're going to have a good power play. We have real good players, I was happy for all of them. I thought they played pretty well on it tonight."

4. One of the quiet bright spots of the preseason: Filip Larsson. Larsson, the Swedish goalie signed to a two-year deal this summer, has now played in two halves of two preseason games. He stopped 18 of 19 shots faced in an unplanned relief effort in the preseason opener against the Sabres. Tonight was a planned split start with Tristan Jarry, and after Jarry stopped 24 of 26, Larsson finished with a perfect showing on his 12 shots faced. 

It's still hard to guess how the goaltending prospects cards fall over these next weeks. With Taylor Gauthier dealing with an injury, he might get the short stick and end up in Wheeling to start, even if he doesn't really deserve it. Larsson might still be third on the depth chart behind Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov, but that's definitely not a distant third.

5. One interesting trend throughout camp has been Anthony Beauvillier on Crosby's left wing. That's how they started camp, though as of late Drew O'Connor's been up there and Beauvillier's been on the third line. With O'Connor getting this game off, Beauvillier was back on Crosby's wing. He had one shot on goal and the secondary assist on Crosby's first goal. While he still seems like a long shot to start on that line, he might be the first man up into the top six if opportunity is there due to injury or illness.

We just wanted to explore it and see if that's a potential option for us," Sullivan said of that combination. "You know, we know (O'Connor) can play there. We thought we would try Anthony there and see how he does. He can really skate and get in on pucks. That was one of the things that I think kind of led us to that determination that we explore. I think he's played pretty well. We've had a fairly decent amount of time there to explore, and so I think it's an option for us, we'll see how it goes moving forward.”

6. It's hard to imagine the top pairing is anything but Grzelcyk-Letang to open the season. They've been together all of camp, and played together tonight. With this being a neutral-site game the NHL doesn't have the advanced on-ice event tracking it does in real NHL arenas, so I can't quantify the shot attempts, unblocked attempts and all that happened in either direction when they were on the ice. But they seem to have early chemistry and work well together.

7. One guy who had a good showing was Boko Imama on the fourth line. He actually plays hockey well -- strong on the forecheck, physical, good in his own end. But a big part of his role is being an enforcer, and he did that tonight. First, when Sam Poulin got into an altercation with a Senators player and a second Senators player tackled Poulin from behind, Imama came flying in to protect Poulin. Then as the game progressed and things got progressively more chippy, Imama dropped the gloves and handled Jan Jenik.

Sullivan almost gets this light in his eye sometimes when talking about certain depth players or prospects he really admires, and when he was talking about what Imama can bring to the organization, he had that look on his face.

"Boko adds a lot," Sullivan said. "Obviously, he sticks up for our guys. He can initiate physical play. He plays a fairly conscientious game, he doesn't turn pucks over. And he's a terrific person. I don't know if you guys have had a chance to interact with him, but he really is. His energy is contagious. I think the guys really like him. He loves what he does, loves hockey, loves being on the ice, and I just love his energy. He's a really good teammate."

In case you missed it earlier in camp, here's my feature on Imama "not the type to back down" for his teammates. Can vouch for Sullivan's account of Imama being a "terrific person." He was great to speak with for that story, then the day after it ran he found me and thanked me for it again and let me know his mother enjoyed it. 

8. One of the big goals in these games is to escape them uninjured. The Penguins were unlucky in that regard almost immediately. Blake Lizotte was supposed to get the opportunity to skate on Malkin's left wing tonight but was injured before he even took a shift when a puck went into the bench and hit him right in the face. Sullivan didn't have much of an update afterward.

"Scary thing," Sullivan said. "He never saw it coming. That was a tough one. I don’t think the guys were used to the bench being that far down into the zone, that’s a little bit different in this rink."

The benches at Sudbury Community Arena are in weird places -- they're on opposite sides of the rink, and the Penguins' one was further from the center than normal to account for the big tunnel leading to the locker room.

Bunting skated on Malkin's wing opposite Rakell in Lizotte's absence.

9. This was a really cool experience. It's always a neat opportunity to see an NHL game in a rink this size (as a one-off novelty, not for a whole season, Coyotes) and the atmosphere in these small towns is always great. It would be cool to see more of these exhibitions in U.S. or Canadian markets become a thing. The U.S. version of Hockeyville is dead, so as it is right now there's only one Canadian Hockeyville each year. More games outside of the Hockeyville event would be neat.

The people of Sudbury also could not have been nicer. From the local media there, rink staff, college kids from the local university sports management program helping out, everyone was great. Met a couple of readers of our site (and listeners of Dejan's podcasts) up here too. Plus, free Tim Hortons at the morning skate. That's how you win over media.

10. The rosters for both Monday's game and Tuesday's game against the Red Wings haven't been set yet, but we should see more depth guys and prospects on Monday and likely more NHLers on Tuesday. The postponement of Saturday's game forced a situation in which the Penguins will have five games in six days, making it a good thing that they're still carrying two full teams worth of players on the camp roster. They're going to need everyone so as to not overtax guys with an exhibition schedule. If someone didn't play tonight, it's not a knock on them. There's a lot more hockey this week, and some shuffling was warranted. 

However the Penguins end up lining up over these next days, whether it's a guy fighting for a spot or an NHL regular, the goal is going to be the same: "Compete hard."

"We still have a lot of bodies in training camp," Sullivan said. "So a lot of the guys that are in the lineup in that game in Detroit, we expect to compete hard, and we try to get better every day. We're trying to implement our team concept little by little here throughout training camp, trying to get players an opportunity to do what they do best, to give young guys a chance to make the roster, and we're trying to get our veteran guys ready for Game 1. It's coming."