By rule, it’s a good idea not to place too much stock in any single instant of the preseason. NHL training camps are a series of many data points from testing to practice to games that it’s not a good idea to have the needle move too much for any one time the spotlight is the brightest – on TV in an exhibition against an incomplete opponent.
That disclaimer out of the way, there is of course some evaluation and stories developing that we can draw from tonight’s action when the Penguins kicked off
the first game of their 2025-26 preseason schedule up in Quebec against the Montreal Canadiens.
Here was the lines and lineup for the Penguins:
The hosting Canadiens ice a pretty good lineup with a bevy of NHL forwards at the top of their lineup and new addition Noah Dobson playing on the back-end, as well as starting goalie Samuel Montembault. Home teams usually are a little stronger than the visitors on paper in willingness to bring a little extra for convenience and entertainment alike
The Pens and Habs traded some power plays, it was Pittsburgh who struck first. Harrison Brunicke, Valtteri Puustinen and Tristan Broz teamed up to make a flurry of quick passes in and through the slot that culminated with Puustinen feeding Broz who quickly snapped a shot past Samuel Montembeault.
Sam Poulin threw a hit and dropped the gloves with a spirited fight about halfway through the game, the Pens used that break to split the goaltending time with Sergei Murashov coming in to relieve Joel Blomqvist. Montreal also took the opportunity to substitute Jacob Fowler into their net in exchange for Montembeault.
The Pens got into penalty trouble in the third period, they battled to kill off some more 5v3 time and soon after the power play expired Montreal got their first goal. Murashov couldn’t sweep up a puck into his glove, got spun around and eventually ended flat on his back. Not much good comes from that and Owen Beck was able to lift a puck over the fallen goalie and into the net. 1-1 game.
Overtime was in the cards, seeing a mostly cautious 3v3v for the first half. It finally opened up, Ryan Shea setup Avery Hayes for a nice look on a 2-on-1 but Fowler made a nice save to keep the game alive. Murashov would answer that big save with one of his own, flashing the leg moving laterally to take a goal away from Ivan Demidov. Mike Matheson hit the outside of the post in the final seconds.
That allowed some shootout practice. Murashov got the better of his countryman Demidov again by poking the puck away from his attempt. Mantha couldn’t score in his home province. Laine fired off target and Tommy Novak couldn’t find the five-hole. Sean Farrell shot a puck that hit Murashov and still had enough English to flip over and into the net. Broz managed to extend the game even further with a nifty deke and fake to tuck a forehand five-hole shot in. Filip Mesar couldn’t deke past Murashov only to see Ben Kindel not be able to score on his backhand deke.
In Round 5, Oliver Kapanen solved Murashov with a nifty backhand deke, which ended up being the winning effort after Avery Hayes couldn’t score on the final chance.
Some other thoughts and stray observations:
- Tristan Broz was the lone forward to kill a 3v5. Needed a center in the situation but nice to see him get tapped and do well even before he scored a goal. Broz also made a wonderful centering pass for Mantha in front of the net that nearly scored. All of that went down in the first period alone. Broz was shining against the prospects in Buffalo last week and he’s still looking pretty darn good and standing out in multiple moments early in the preseason.
- Montreal got that 5v3 advantage because the puck rolled over the stick of Ryan Graves, who was left behind the play and Connor Clifton tripped over his feet crossing up, leading to Graves having to slash to limit the chance. So, yeah, that wasn’t pretty or much evidence “new year, new me” is going to apply to Graves when he’s struggling with the basics like trying to send a puck in deep. That’s unfortunately shades of the past. Graves would go onto take another penalty while the Pens were already shorthanded later in the game, so, yeah..Not a great first night.
- First impression of some newcomers: Clifton is physical if nothing else, limited elsewise…Thought Matt Dumba had a nice night, it’s not exactly 100% regular season pace out there but for a player advertised as dropping off moving the puck, he had some nice moments in that regard…Anthony Mantha, quiet but not a ton to work with either…Robby Fabbri played with more of an edge than I expected, throwing his body around with hits.
- Ben Kindel got time on the top power play, alongside some NHL players (Mantha, Dumba, Novak) and Avery Hayes too. Kindel looked pretty good again holding on to the puck when he needed to.
- Blomqvist didn’t have a ton to do but did everything he needed to on the way to stopping all 11 shots he saw. Quiet night for him due to the game circumstance of the Pens mostly controlling play while he was in there, but a nice start nonetheless.
- Similarly, nice but quiet night for Pickering. He stood tall on Patrik Laine during a rush, which is exactly what you want to see. Nothing overwhelming but a good night to build on for Pickering.
- Tonight marked the NHL preseason debut of 21-year old Sergei Murashov, who wasn’t quite ready to match up against NHL caliber shooters last September. He certainly is now, and that’s a progress point for his growth and development. A lot of places and people are whisking along his development, and not for nothing since he is a very talented and promising player. His style is to play on the edge of losing control, and that was on display on the goal against when he lost his net. Murashov also played in the busy portion of the game and stopped 17 of 18 shots in regulation and was good in OT and decent enough in the shootout situation.
Overall it would have to be considered a successful first night for the Pens. Win or loss can be flushed out the window compared to the more important items like seeing some good things from players like Broz, Brunicke, Blomqvist and Pickering all putting some nice tape together that should continue to build the cases they are making to earn some sort of role either at the beginning of the season, if not deeper into it in some of their situations. That’s about all you can ask for the first game, now it’s back to Pittsburgh to keep camp rolling along.
