The Penguins used the following lineup of potential lower-lineup players and maybe a third pairing or two possibility surrounded by future minor leaguers in their first home preseason game of the season against Detroit on Friday night.
The visiting Red Wings didn’t exactly bring their A-team either, though they did start Whitehall native John Gibson for his very first taste of action with the winged wheel on his chest and bring a couple
of recent first round picks in Carter Bear and Nate Danielson to the party.
Detroit got the better of the play early but the game settled in until AHL contracted rookie Aaron Huglen got forced into a bad idea with a pass coming up the ice that got picked off and Connor Clifton and Ryan Shea were both way up on the play and out of position. That gave John Leonard a free look at picking a spot, and he did just that wiring a puck by Tristan Jarry. Leonard scored 36 goals last season in the AHL (for Charlotte) and, well, you can see how with this shot.
Detroit scored on the power play, and it was Leonard again. This one was a little flick of the wrist from just inside of the blueline, a couple of players waved their sticks at it, but it looked like it went straight through and somehow eluded Jarry. 2-0.
The Pens got on the board early in the second period, Jack St. Ivany took the wide open space he was given to skate to space and centered the puck for Connor Dewar. Dewar made a spinning backhand shot that might have been hopeful but did have some zip and elevation on it. 2-1 game.
Philip Tomasino raised the temperature of the game when he went into Gibson at high speed. There was some back pressure on him from a defender and Tomasino did try to leap up instead of plow right through but that got the ire of Gibson and a bunch of Red Wings to try and pound him. Even up penalties resulted, which seemed just.
During a TV timeout near the mid-way point of the period, and game, both teams change out their goalies. Arturs Silovs gets into the net for the Pens, Jarry departs having stopped 11 of 13 shots.
The change of goalies eventually let the Pens’ class shine, Detroit put in an undrafted goalie signed from the Czech league. He gave up a goal to Robby Fabbri, with the former Red Wing knifing through the defense and getting to the far post quicker than the goalie 2-2 game.
Pittsburgh struck on the power play in the third period to take their first lead and the lead for good. A quick series of passes ended up with Filip Hallander finding Philip Tomasino all alone in front. Wrong guy for the Red Wings. 3-2 Pens.
That ended up being it for the scoring, and the Pens have their first win of the 2025-26 season.
A few random thoughts to put a bow on the night:
- Jarry, like many Penguin goalies, are wearing black pads this fall. That’s a change up from a rule instituted by Kyle Dubas. Upon joining into the organization in 2023 Dubas mandated that all goalies in the organization were to wear white pads, due to the belief white pads and a white net/end boards made it more challenging for the opponents to see open areas to shoot, compared to the contrast of black pads. Doesn’t mean much, as we’ve seen from goalie results in the last couple years, if anything the takeaway is that it’s nice Dubas is flexible at least. It would probably be a stretch to call Dubas a Lou Lamoriello disciple, but the younger manager certainly had an impression made on him, and that kind of connection catches an eye for a manager making a suggestion like color of pads. But I don’t think old Lou would have been flexible enough to change his ways and drop many of his ideas, so I guess credit to Dubas for
- Regardless of pad color, gotta hope Jarry gets goals like the second one out of the way now when the games don’t count. Dealing with any sort of traffic or distraction has always given him fits and that was on display. That’s what preseason is for to get sharp but he’s gonna have to take it up a notch when it counts. Hard to do much more hand wringing besides that for tonight, though it isn’t the most encouraging tell about where his game is at right now.
- Dewar had a nice spinning backhand shot. Was reminiscent of those first few games in Pittsburgh when he couldn’t miss and was scoring regularly. That never lasts very long for him but is frequent enough to win him an NHL job. And he wore an A on his jersey as an alternate captain. Not that they had much to choose from or that it means too terribly much, but it’s something.
- Also wearing an A: Ryan Graves. Unlike his first preseason game earlier this week, he wasn’t a train wreck tonight either. Progress! And see, other various NHL teams, Graves is a veteran! A leader of men! Trade for him now!
- The preseason is always good for a ‘holy crap, that guy’s still around?‘ – and today’s contestant was 35-year old Travis Hamonic. Completely blanked that he was picked up by the Red Wings, and not even on a tryout, on a $1.0 million deal. Good for him.
- Not many people say “stock down” and bash a player in the preseason compared to all the sleepers and risers that get celebrated, but so far Tommy Novak hasn’t really stood out or popped or done much to suggest he’s ready for the NHL season. It’d be foolish to read into that too much, but tonight you saw Dewar score, and Fabbri score and Tomasino score. Novak, like other games, is just kinda there. Not that he has to earn or win a job, but it would be more encouraging to see him play a more visible style or get on the board now and then. Same could probably be said for Danton Heinen getting copied and pasted in the above note.
- With that in mind, Fabbri is giving the Pens something to think about after his solid exhibition game performances. Is the team really going to waive someone like Heinen to sign a guy like Fabbri that will probably be about same same for overall impact over the course of the season? That’s something to be considered; how much is too much, and are the guys under contract enough when Kevin Hayes and Noel Acciari will be coming back from injury sooner or later too? Fabbri’s done pretty well for making a case for himself — we’ve seen enough to be confident he wouldn’t be out of place based on his on ice play — but there are bigger questions surrounding need and numbers already on hand with contracts that make it a gray area where the team could reasonably go in different directions with the decision about Fabbri. It’s not going to make or break the year regardless of the call, but it will be interesting to see if Fabbri has impressed enough to stick around — and what that decision could mean for other players on the fringe of the roster. There are only so many numbers to go around.
- Gotta call this what it was for the Penguins — a throwaway game. Nice to get out of it with a win and see a few NHL guys kick in enough to get the result, but this night won’t leave many lasting memories. With camp in WBS opening up this weekend, a lot of the lower part of this lineup will be headed up that way sooner than later. This was just kinda one to get through to get to tomorrow.
And now we’re through with it! There won’t be a bigger difference all year from the quarter-filled building tonight and a lineup of mostly non-factors for what the arena will turn into in just 24 hours. The stars will be out, the stands will be packed for the Pens’ game against Columbus to see Marc-Andre Fleury play a period one more time.
