Coach Dishes Praise to Tristan Broz, More Penguins Rookies

CRANBERRY — The young players in the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ lineup got after it Monday night against the Montreal Canadiens in the team’s first preseason game.

In what is usually a lopsided loss as teams send lesser rosters to face the home team’s NHL regulars, getting ready for the season, the Penguins’ supposedly lesser roster allowed only one goal and took Montreal to a shootout in a 2-1 SO loss.

One of the Penguins’ best forwards was Tristan Broz. PHN has graded the second-year professional center very well through camp. Coach Dan Muse did, as well.

“You saw that he got an opportunity and took advantage of those opportunities in a lot of different situations. Obviously, he got a great power play goal in a game that was very low scoring,” Muse said. “He executed on that side of the special teams. And then he had some big moments on the penalty kill … We were down two men for a pretty extended time, and he was out there for some parts of that.

And then the five-on-five play, I think, he just made an impact at both ends of the ice. I think in terms of just being able to drive pucks into the zone, maintain possession. And then on the defensive side, he was working. And so key face-offs, there were a lot of key face-offs. And so he earned the right to be in a lot of different situations, and I thought he took advantage of them.”

Harrison Brunicke–Owen Pickering

The young defensemen on the Penguins roster are fighting for sunshine in the lineup. While Pickering is likely to be inserted into the opening night lineup, Brunicke is part of the crowded right-side battle and is only 19 years old.

Brunicke will make the NHL roster or head back to the WHL. So, each opportunity is crucial for the smooth-skating defenseman.

Throughout training camp, Muse has paired the young D-men. They were especially good in the first half of the game when the Penguins dominated, but like the rest of the team, they were chasing the game in the third period when Montreal dominated.

“I thought you saw a lot of good things on both sides of the puck. I think in the offensive zone, both guys can get moving a little bit, which creates space and can create confusion for the opponents. And there were some shifts there where they were really able to do that,” said Muse. “Some of the shifts where we were able to extend time in the offensive zone, but then also the puck movement, the breakouts, I think at the beginning of the game, the breakouts were really good, and they were a big part of that.”

Brunicke led the team with six shots on goal. He had three shots blocked and missed one.

Sergei Murashov

Murashov stopped 17 of 18 shots before losing in the shootout. It was a frenetic performance as the Penguins were on their back feet in the third period.

“I think both goalies played well last night, but Murashov had some big saves there, some big moments, and that save in overtime where he gets across–I mean, that was a pretty good shooter there on the other side, too,” Muse said. “And so, you’ve got a young guy like that who goes into a packed house up in Montreal and gets to be in that moment. You never know what kind of situations guys are gonna be in or what kind of potential opportunities they have, but he got put in some spots where he needed to come up with some big saves, and he did.”

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Coach Dishes Praise to Tristan Broz, More Penguins Rookies

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