Players on fringe get long look as preseason play winds down
DETROIT — On a night when Teddy Blueger jumped up three lines to be the No. 1 center, Brian Dumoulin played on his weak side and the third-string goalie got the entire game, the Penguins lost, 32, to the Detroit Red Wings.
It shouldn’t matter much that no one bothered covering Madison Bowey on the game-winner in overtime, which dropped the Penguins to 1-1-2 this preseason, or that earlier in the night one of their veterans scored on their own goalie.
The lineups are weird and the hockey might not be pretty. But these exhibitions are for working out the kinks and evaluating prospects and bubble boys. With two left to go after the consecutive losses over the weekend in Columbus and Detroit, here are some thoughts about some players on the fringe.
• The cries to ship Jack Johnson to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or Siberia won’t quiet down after he got flustered by pressure from Detroit forward Anthony Mantha in the second period and accidentally put the puck off Jarry and into the net.
His main competitor, Juuso Riikola, remains a work in progress, though.
The tools are there for Riikola, 25, who is in his second season in North America. He skates well. He showed off his booming slap shot Saturday in Columbus. He catches the eye with at least one smart breakout pass every game. And who doesn’t love seeing a hip check in today’s NHL?
But the blue-liner is still trying to put it all together. He can get lost a little in defensive zone coverage and he still has unforced errors on the breakout, like in the second period Sunday when he tried to bank one off the boards to the left winger but miscalculated the angle, leading to a turnover and a 3-on-2 break.
This is not to say that Riikola is a worse option than Johnson. Just pointing out that Riikola has yet to prove he deserves a regular lineup spot in the NHL.
• Tristan Jarry has been fine in close to 97 minutes of preseason play.
In the second half of loss last week to Buffalo and Sunday in Detroit he made some spectacular saves to give the Penguins a chance. In the first period, he stopped Red Wings speedster Dylan Larkin on a breakaway. In the third, he robbed Mantha with his glove after a tic-tac-toe passing play.
But Jarry in his time with the NHL club leaves you wanting a little more.
He has allowed six goals in a game and a half of preseason play and the game-winner, neither of them necessarily bad, in overtime in two losses. That will probably not be enough, barring an injury elsewhere, to convince a team to give up something of significance to acquire the 24-year-old goalie in a trade.
It seems likely he’ll be sent back to the minors. Will he clear waivers?
• Zach Aston-Reese has had a quiet preseason and camp. He finally made some noise in the first when he landed a big hit on Dylan McIlrath that sprang the Penguins on an odd-man break finished off by Dumoulin. Yes, really.
That’s the kind of play the Penguins want to see more of from the winger, who figures to start the regular season on the fourth line or in the press box.