Puljujarvi on healthy scratch: 'What can you do?'

MONTREAL -- Jesse Puljujarvi was one of the standouts -- if not the standout -- of the Penguins' preseason.

Puljujarvi was the Penguins' leading scorer in the exhibition contests. Skating in four of the Penguins' seven games, he scored four goals and four assists, including a hat trick in the preseason opener. Coupled with a number of goals in the intra-squad scrimmages in camp, Puljujarvi was hard to miss.

Puljujarvi skated on the right side of the Penguins' third line in the first two games of the regular season, opposite rookie Rutger McGroarty and centered by Lars Eller. He had one point in those games, the secondary helper on the Penguins' first goal of the season on Thursday in Detroit, setting up Sidney Crosby to assist Anthony Beauvillier, who was credited with the goal after it went in off a Red Wing:

"Jesse, I don't know if he was the surprise of camp, but he was the one that jumped out at me the most," Mike Sullivan said of Puljujarvi after Thursday's win over the Red Wings. "How strong he was, how well-conditioned he was, his skating is noticeably stronger this year. And I think that's a big part of his game. When he's skating, he can get in on the forecheck. He's so long and rangy. He takes up space, he's hard to play against in that regard. When he gets after it, and his skating allows him to do that, he's hard on the forecheck. He can do that all over the rink for us, and through the exhibition season he's shown an ability to score goals. We're hoping that he can continue to build his game. But I think he's played terrific from the start of training camp, and that's why he's in our top-9."

But when Bryan Rust was ready to return from injury and make his season debut on Saturday in Toronto, it was surprisingly Puljujarvi who found himself relegated to the press box to make room.

"It's pretty hard," Puljujarvi told me one-on-one after the Penguins' practice in Montreal on Sunday. "But what can you do? I've been doing my best every day and showing that I can be a good player. They make those decisions on who they put into the lineup, but I'm just going forward and training hard and trying to be positive every day. When I get a chance again, I'm going to be ready."

Sullivan spoke after Saturday's loss to the Maple Leafs and Sunday's practice about the "difficult decision" that was made to sit Puljujarvi, and Puljujarvi said that Sullivan stressed to him before Saturday's game how hard it was to sit him. Obviously, with Rust coming back, someone had to sit. Sullivan said that the fact that it was Puljujarvi doesn't change how pleased they've been with his progress over the last year, though.

"I feel strongly that (Puljujarvi) has played extremely well, and I don't want the decision to disrupt the progress that he's made. Jesse deserves a lot of credit. He's worked extremely hard to get to the point where he's at. He worked hard in the offseason, and I think it's important that he continues to build on his on his overall game."

The message from the coaching staff to Puljujarvi this week was to just "control what you can control." Keep working hard in practice and doing what he can to be ready for when the opportunity to get back into the lineup presents itself.

"I'm not saying that he has to agree with my decision," Sullivan told me of Puljujarvi. "My hope is that he would respect the decision. I explain the whys, and so when he gets the opportunity to back in the lineup, he's got a chance to make the most of it and continue to build on the game that he's started to build here in the early part of the season."

For Puljujarvi, he's already doing just that. He was one of the last players on the ice for Sunday's practice, only coming off the ice when he absolutely had to in order to not miss the bus back to the hotel. He still has his usual upbeat attitude on and off the ice, and doesn't seem like he's getting too down over the decision. He's just looking forward to the time he does get back into a game.

"I hope I can be even better then," he said.