Haase: Puustinen pounces on a 'good feeling'

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When I spoke with Valtteri Puustinen on Thursday morning, he said he had a "good feeling" about his impending performance in the Penguins' preseason game that night. And with competition tight for the final forward spots on the NHL roster, he knew he'd need a good game.

"There are so many good players fighting for the same spot," he said. "But I have a good feeling, and I can try to play my best preseason game now."

Puustinen did just that in the Penguins' 3-1 win over the Blue Jackets here in Columbus, Ohio. He's done his best to make a case to earn his spot on the Penguins' roster again this season.

Puustinen scored the Penguins' first goal in the win, going to the net-front and knocking in a Ville Koivunen pass from behind the net in the second period."

Puustinen, who has played in three preseason games now, called the second and third periods on Friday his "best periods in the preseason."

"I have a good feeling now," he said. "Maybe I pushed myself a little but after I scored, when I see I can score here. It's really good for me. I played the first game, second, third, and I can play a little bit better. I think this is better."

Puustinen's whole line with Koivunen and Tristan Broz did seem to reach a new level in the second half of the game, after Puustinen's goal. They had more jump and were attempting more shots.

I asked Mike Sullivan early in camp what Puustinen has to do to earn a spot on the roster in camp, even though Puustinen has a decent body of work at the NHL level already. Sullivan's answer for every player is to "make an impact," and in Puustinen's case, Sullivan said that Puustinen has to score more. Obviously, you want that depth scoring regardless. But when Puustinen's confidence rises from a good goal, the rest of his game follows.

Puustinen is one of several younger forwards who had a good camp and made a case to earn a roster spot. Sullivan told the depth-heavy lineup after Thursday's win that the coaching staff and management have tough decisions ahead of them, and it's a compliment to the players that it's now even more difficult.

"That's a great problem to have from our standpoint," Sullivan said. "We're thrilled with just the effort, the attitude, the intentions out there just going over the boards. I thought the guys played hard."

PENGUINS

Jesse Puljujarvi in Thursday's game against the Blue Jackets in Columbus, Ohio

2. Puustinen's line with Koivunen and Tristan Broz might not have been the best, but it was the Penguins' most exciting. It didn't translate to a lot of shots for -- only two total on seven attempts in the 11:13 in which all three were on the ice at the same time -- but the way they were finding each other with passes was impressive. You'd think that was a group that had extensive prior experience together. I mean, they do have some experience. But not too much.

"I played last year with Ville in the playoffs in Wilkes for one game," Puustinen explained. "And of course, I watched him in the Finnish league last year. I saw he's a really smart player and a skilled guy. Both guys are really good players."

3. Jesse Puljujarvi's preseason has gotten quieter since that hat trick in the exhibition season opener. He had the assist on Kevin Hayes' empty net goal to seal the win tonight, but he was noticeable tonight for reasons outside of the scoresheet. When his line with Hayes and Rutger McGroarty was on the ice, it was pretty low-event hockey in a good way with the Penguins having the edge in chances, with a 6-3 lead in shots. But it was perhaps his skating that stood out the most in this one. For a big guy, when he gets moving, he gets moving. He's got a powerful stride. Even though Puljujarvi was able to play last season after recovering from double hip surgery, a real full summer has made a difference. He feels better than he did last year in his skating, and it shows.

"I think it's night and day," Sullivan said of Puljujarvi's skating compared to last season. "I think he's so much stronger. I think his skating is much better. That was a very difficult rehab process that he went through last year, and that stuff takes time, and he worked extremely hard to get to the point where he could even play last year. So to have a full summer to continue to get stronger, I think, his skating is night and day, and I think his confidence is growing because of it. If you would ask me to single out a few guys, he would be one that I think has had an extremely good training camp. He certainly put himself in the conversation for this Pittsburgh Penguins roster."

4. You couldn't ask for much more from Tristan Jarry in this. He faced an understandably heavy workload, given that the Blue Jackets dressed far more NHL players. He let in an early goal from Cole Sillinger on a partial breakaway out of the penalty box, but was steady after that and finished with 33 saves on 34 shots. He's primed for the start of the season.

5. Man, I don't see how Jonathan Gruden sticks around to start the season in the NHL, just given the other depth options available at forward. But he had an incredible goal to close out his preseason, getting a tip on a shot between his own legs off a great heads-up pass from Joona Koppanen after Koppanen won a board battle. I'd love to embed the video here, but it wasn't televised, only streamed, and I can't find it clipped anywhere.

"That was really nice," Sullivan said of Gruden's goal. "In between the legs, like that? I think he's been watching (Sidney Crosby) in practice a little bit. It was a great play by Grudes, a great play all around. But, happy for Grudes. He's a hard-working guy. He does a lot of the thankless jobs, they don't always show up in the scoresheet. But he's one of those guys that helps you win games. We were thrilled for him."

6. Of the defensemen in this game seriously battling for the sixth defenseman gig -- Ryan Shea, Sebastian Aho, John Ludvig -- I don't think anyone showed anything here (or any other point in the preseason) that would suggest that they should beat out Jack St. Ivany. He's been the best of that group throughout the preseason. That being said, I don't think any of those three were bad, and any one of them would be a fine pick for the seventh defenseman. It helps that they can all play both sides of a pairing, too

Sullivan said all of Shea, Aho and Ludvig "remain in the conversation" after this game. 

"Ryan Shea has had a great camp," Sullivan said. "I think he played really well tonight. I think he's played extremely well throughout the course of the camp. When you look at some of the games that he's played in, he's played against a lot of NHL rosters. He was in Detroit when Detroit had an NHL roster. He was playing again tonight against a legitimate NHL roster. I thought he handled it extremely well. I thought this might have been (Ludvig's) best game. I thought he had a slow start, but I think he's got better as the camp's gone on. I think (Aho) has been as advertised. He's a mobile guy. He's a good puck mover. I think he defends well with a stick. He has mobility. He's a little undersized, so at the net front and in the battle areas, that's part of his challenge when you're of that stature. But I think he does a real good job with his stick and his brain to try to win puck battles and defend."

7. Sam Poulin had an OK game centering a third line with Emil Bemstrom and Corey Andonovski. He had two shots on four attempts, one hit, and won six of his 10 faceoffs. His line as a whole was good at getting shots off from in close and also defending their own net-front, and it resulted in four high-danger chances for and none against. Sullivan, though not asked specifically about Poulin, volunteered that Poulin "had a couple of real good shifts."

While Poulin could make a fine bottom-six forward, I'm not sure if he really showed enough in this preseason to get that opportunity straight out of camp, given the other options around. He could be in line for a mid-season call up assuming he clears waivers (which is generally easy to do this time of year, given that 31 other teams are making equally tough decisions with their own forwards) but that call up wouldn't get any easier, given the likes of McGroarty, Vasily Ponomarev and others also being in the mix.

8. The Penguins' top three fastest skaters in this game all were within a tenth of a mile per hour of each other: Koppanen (21.5), Puljujarvi, (21.4) and Puustinen (21.3). When I relayed this to Puustinen, he immediately knew what I was getting at and said, "Oh! All Finnish guys!" I asked him what they're feeding these guys over in Finland to come up with those results and he had some theories: "We have better bread, maybe," he said. "Or it's the saunas."

I don't know if he was talking about "pulla," a cardamom bread that's unique to Finland. But I had pulla at a Finnish cafe in Minnesota last season, and he might be onto something there. It's really, really good. 

9. The brightest spot of this game: Nobody got hurt. After losing Blake Lizotte to a concussion in Sudbury on Sunday, Alex Nedeljkovic to a lower-body injury in Detroit on Monday, and Ponomarev and seemingly now Bryan Rust in the game on Tuesday, the Penguins couldn't lose any more guys in exhibition contests, especially this close to the start of the season.

10. The Penguins' preseason finale on Friday will feature an NHL-heavy lineup, but also four players who skated in his one -- McGroarty, Hayes, Puljujarvi and Boko Imama. It'll also include Harrison Brunicke, who was included on the initial roster for this game but didn't play and was the healthy scratch on defense. It's probably a good sign that Brunicke's getting a game with the NHL guys. He's had an outstanding camp. Don't count him out as far as sticking around for a few games.