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Sierra, let's get moving. ♪♪♪ Hello everybody and welcome to the tip of the iceberg podcast, your home for Pittsburgh Penguins News and Analysis. You can find us on YouTube at tip of the iceberg. Make sure you like, share, subscribe, or. You can find us anywhere. You get your podcast from. I'm your host, Nick Belsky. Joined as always by Nick Horwatt and, well, we are off and running on the 2024/25 Pittsburgh Penguins season. Oh, and won at the end of the day. Might not have been a pretty Oh, and won, but is Oh, and won nonetheless. 81 games left. But what we are going to do is recap that debacle that we watched last night on TNT. What went wrong for the Pittsburgh Penguins and why? Those issues feel a little bit too familiar. And then we're going to move on. We're going to cut and dry, move on just as the Penguins are moving on. We're going to discuss a fun connection between two Pittsburgh Penguins netminers, one past and one present. They are having something very special happen, 21 years apart. And then, of course, we'll close this one out, excuse me, with our weekly pens poll. Let's get started. And let's start things off with, well, last night. I mean, it didn't go well, Horwatt, from the opening puck drop. It really started to feel like, all right, maybe, maybe the Penguins did need to address their goaltending issues in the summer. But they fall six to nothing on opening night to the New York Rangers. A lot of their issues look familiar. We'll jump into that here in just a second. But before we get into that, Horwatt, what were your overall thoughts on the Penguins opener? The overall thoughts were, I get that it's the first game of the season, then rightfully so. There is no reason to panic. However, there is cause for concern. I'd say the level of the panic level isn't there, but the concern level is because nothing's changed. These are the same issues that we dove into last year. Wait, hold on, check's notes. Same issues we've dove into the year before. Oh, it's same issues we dove into the year before. At least the second home opener in a row where, oh, it's the same nonsense, fighting them. It's the same thing. You know, in the Penguins defense, this time they didn't have a lead to blow, but everything else felt the same about it. The goaltending wasn't there. You're right, they didn't address it. Let's be honest, had Nadelkovich been healthy, I bet he starts the second period regardless of back-to-back situation. Yeah, I mean, Jeff Taylor mentioned that last night on the watch-along that we did. He said honestly, and he even went a step further. He said if Nadelkovich was healthy, he probably could have started that game. He could see seeing that. So, Tristan Jari, let's just jump into that right now. I mean, he allowed a couple of week goals early. I thought he kind of settled down as the game went on, and it's not like the Rangers took their foot off the pedal. They were pushing the issue really the entire 60 minutes. And I talked last night about, you know, that is a desperate team this year. They are desperate to go out there and do the damn thing. So, they are not going to take any game any period lightly. They put the pressure on the entire game. And I thought, especially in the third period, there was that breakaway save on Chris Kreider. Sorry, it was on Kapo Kako. There was a couple of nice post-to-post saves early in the period on that four-on-three penalty kill. But overall, Tristan Jari killed the Penguins momentum early. The Penguins momentum early in that game. And by the time he picked up steam, they were down four to nothing. It was just an ugly, ugly performance. It had not been a back-to-back. I don't know if that's even a situation you want to put Plumpquist in for an NHL debut, just in general. Yeah, that's the other thing. It was a... Mike Sullivan's kind of handicapped Jari there. He's not playing his best, but at the same time, it's the first game of the season. You're getting demolished, and you play again in 24 hours. 25 hours since they delayed it. And then, like you mentioned, a rookie goaltender sitting behind the game. Yeah, and then it's someone who doesn't have any NHL experience, and the Rangers are hustling out there. It's an ugly situation that, you know, it felt handcuffing in the goal-tending position. That's just going to need something that's just something that's going to need to be vastly improved upon. And, Jeff is right. I wouldn't have been shocked if Nodelkovich was healthy if he was given the start. Again, it's unlikely, but I wouldn't have been surprised just by how last season ended. You know, if Kyle Dubas tried to move Jari this summer, well, the whole note. We discussed before how long is Jari's leash going to be this year? He got the extra slack this time because of a back-to-back and because it's an experienced goalie behind him. So he was going to be given probably that full 60 unless he got hurt regardless of the score. When it comes to his numbers this year, he's starting from way behind the eight ball, but we'll see how it goes. If he's able to improve, hopefully there was just a knock the dust off game for him and a lot of other things, which we can continue to dive into. Yeah, it was one performance against a very good New York Rangers team. You're hoping that, you know, essentially his second start would likely be on Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. You're hoping that he bounces back and looks much better, but that's not much of an easy task. It's not much easier. You got Matthew, although they got shut out yesterday. So, you know, you never know. They put up 47, 48 shots and lost one to nothing. I mean, for what it's worth, the Oilers also got shut out yesterday. Who would have thought after game one of the seasons, Sydney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews would all be without a point? Yeah, I mean, I'm sure the odds would have been good on that one, but let's move outside of the crease and talk a little bit about the Penguins giving up odd man rushes. This is another thing that they were when they were at their worst last year. This was one of the biggest issues that they had and it drove Mike Sullivan absolutely nuts. Rangers dominated odd man rushes last night. You saw the tracker continue to be put up by TNT simply because of how ridiculous it was. Game ended, the Rangers had 12 odd man rushes in this game. The Penguins had zero. I understand the Penguins have not been off of good off of the rush for years, but zero odd man rushes on opening night in your home arena. That's just not good enough. And I understand Mike Sullivan is going to be more upset with the 12 number than he is with the zero number, but at some point you have to do something off the rush if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins. The thing about off the rush too is that generate scoring chances. Regardless of if you do well on that rush or not, it's generating chances. Well, I mean, there's no way the scoring chances were any close then. If the Rangers put up 12 and the Penguins had zero, that's just the way that cookie's going to crumble. Sure, maybe you don't score on all of them. Maybe you don't score on any of them, but at least you're generating something. The fact that you had zero isn't good enough, you got to find a way to produce. If you're not getting those chances, you got to find a way to produce without it. And they just didn't. Yeah, the one thing that I will say in kind of support of Tristan Jari certainly did not have a good game. Certainly was the reason that they fell behind and lost all momentum from that first period, because I feel like for the majority of that period, they had outplayed the New York Rangers. Jari gives up those easy goals, and now you're on your back foot going down three to nothing into the second period. But it's not like he was given much help. A lot of blown defensive assignments. You look at that fourth goal in the second period, essentially the nail in the coffin for the Penguins. I don't know what Matt Grizzlyk is doing over committing to the puck carrier there. Marcus Petterson had a beat on him. Marcus Petterson had him taken care of. Grizzlyk overcompensates, and nobody's covering heatle right behind the puck carrier. So I think the defense was certainly lacking as well. Again, first game, Grizzlyk's first game with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Eric Carlson's first game of the season didn't play at all in the preseason. We'll get back to that being a factor in the next thing. But I think the defensive assignments were blown way too often, especially on these odd man rushes. I mean, even if you look at, believe it was the second goal, Marcus Petterson had help coming back from the forward coming back into the zone. It was a two on one. Petterson goes down when he didn't have to. And Alexi Laffernier just toe-drags, walks around him, and scores a goal that, again, quite frankly, Tristan Jari should save that one. But at the same time, Petterson going down whenever he did have that help from Yesa Pulli RV, it just leads to that scoring chance being even possible. Sure, Jari needs to make the saves, but he also needs to help in front of him. It's a little bit of everything. It was a little bit of everything from everyone. At the moment, for that Petterson goal, when you see him go down and you start sliding like that, that's something he's done quite a bit. Something Crystal Tang has done quite a bit. In the heat of the moment, maybe you don't realize that you have someone coming back with you. Or maybe it's when you're watching it, at least, it looks like, okay, he's making the smart play. There's really nothing else he can do in this situation. And also, even if you said left from Yay, even if he does get around him, okay, you also hope your former All-Star goalie can make a save to the last line of defense. Yeah. So it's just a calamity, I think, Jeffrey, who wasn't said that, just a calamity of errors all over the place, all game, much in the way that, you know, the last two seasons have gone. It's, again, it's not a time to panic, it's not, it's game 1 of 82. Yeah. Some of the best teams start off slow, start off terribly. I mean, the Penguins, when they won the Cup in 16, started 0 and 3, and I believe got shut out in one of those games. Yeah. The only thing I'll push back with that is they've started slow the last two seasons and you see where it got them. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think we all know the importance of starting fast, but again, it's one game. That doesn't mean they're going to start slow, they're going to have plenty of opportunities in October. But before we transition and leave this game in the dust, which we are going to do, the power play gets its first opportunity to show at, I don't say full strength because who knows where Brian Russ slots in if he comes back. I would think that Ricardo Cal stays out there, but you never know. But the first unit looked disjointed and a lot of that is going to be because of the fact that Eric Carlson had no game reps coming into this one with that first unit. And I think that plays a large part, the miscommunication on the short handed goal, certainly part of that. I've got him all can expected Carlson to stay put. He drives down deeper into the zone. The puck goes out and then a poor effort by Crystal Tang leads to a short handed goal. But finishing 0 for 3 and giving up a short handed goal is that in which they led the NHL last season, one that you don't want to lead the NHL in giving up 12 last year. Now they're on pace for giving up 82. So what did you think about the Penguins' first power play unit in their first opportunity this season? Was Carlson playing that front purposely? He was down low in the zone a couple of times. And I think that is part of their decision making is that they want everybody to be moving around, which I like. In theory, I don't know if I quite need to see Carlson move into that particular position, but I do like the idea of moving guys around. So do I move the forwards around your defense? I don't know what they're doing in front of a in front of a goalie. Okay. Well, it's Eric Carlson. I would say that he probably does. I don't know. I'll give him, I'll give him sidewall position because I saw that too and thought, really, what are we actually doing? Um, sure, it's a lot of, you know, a lot of adjustments on the fly. It's the new, there's a new coach back there, you know, getting these guys to do certain things, changing the outlook of the power play. First of all, it's not like Eric Carlson is the biggest human being also. If you have, if you're going for net front presence on the power play, that's where Patrick Horquist made his money. Yeah, I don't know if they have anybody to do that though. That's going to be on that unit. Change the steam somehow. It's, again, here it is. We're at the point of, we were paying this podcast talking about the power play. Here comes the head bang against the wall portion, everybody. Um, I don't know what to tell anyone anymore. It's a stack of Hall of Famers that somehow, again, it's game one, so I'm not going to get too panicky, but as I was trying to say before, it isn't time to panic. You're right. Penguins have started slow before, good teams have started slow before, but this is cause for concern because of the history that this team has had. Yeah, this is a continuation on the power play. I don't know what could fix it if they've gone 82 games together. Those four main guys have gone 82 games together and nothing has come from it. Well, again, it was game one and let's not act like they're running the exact carbon copy power play. This is a new system. This is a new power play coach with David Quinn. I'm sure Mike Sullivan had a hand in kind of tweaking this system to where they think it'll work for the Penguins. Give this some time specifically. Give the Penguins some time in general. A six to nothing loss on opening night doesn't end their season as we've been kind of alluding to, but give the power play specifically a little bit of time here. This is one of the reasons why it was concerning that Eric Carlson was missing all of that time in preseason. It was concerning that he did not play in any preseason games. We've talked about, oh, well, they played too many. It would have been nice to see him play in one or two to get his feet underneath him in this new system. A lot of it was looking disjointed. They didn't know where everybody was going to be. They kind of didn't have any flow. That's something I think will get better with time. I'd say at the very least, give it a week before you pass those first judgments about, oh, well, now they've had 85 games together and they still haven't been able to do anything. They had 82 with Reardon in that system. It didn't work. They've had one with David Quinn in this system. It didn't work, but again, it's been one game. It's been one game, but that number is going to, that number one is going to turn into two to four to 82 pretty quickly. And again, I'm just kind of letting it all out. This is the first time in two years, I'm not at a game covering it with a first sight or anything. So I was able to kind of watch as a fan for once in a long time. Boy, I didn't like that, did I? Maybe you need to... That's our rallying cry now. Get Horwatt back in the press box because as of right now, oh, six to nothing. And his first game outside of it, that's not a good start. Here's the issue and it's probably better in the long run, the two years I have been and they miss the playoffs. So in the long run, maybe we're on to something here. That being said, being able to look at it for this one game as a fan again, it just looked like the continuation of what we've seen in the last two seasons. Or at least last season into this year when it comes to the power play. That was tough. That was tough to see. That was tough to watch. It's going to be tough to swallow. I'll give them time to build it. I'll give them time to try and mold something together, especially because your aircalls didn't play a single second of preseason. It was barely around for training camp. And it is a new system for the power play. Whenever they come home for Buffalo on Wednesday the 16th, something better be... I don't want to say fully figured out, but something better look a little more... a little more steady, a little more solid. I mean, how many power play shots did they have last night? Because there was at least one power play. They didn't get any. They went over for three. I don't remember how many shots they had in their third one, but after their second power play they had only had two shots on goal. I wouldn't be shocked if the final answer is two. It was three. So averaging one shot per power play is not going to get it done. But again, it is early in this entire exercise. It is early in the season. So we'll have to wait and see how that progresses. Unfortunately for the penguins, they have an opportunity to kind of wash that bad taste out of their mouth, not just the fact that they have 81 games left on the schedule, but they have a bounce back opportunity tonight against a Detroit Red Wings team who is expected to be better, but is not expected to be a presence trophy team candidate like the New York Rangers. So we'll see what they're able to do on the road as they kick off this three-game road trip. The Tour de Original Six as they have the Red Wings tonight. The Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday in Montreal, Canadian's early next week. Whether you're ordering wings for the game, whipping up a seven-layer dip, or ordering pizza, there's something about football that makes you want to eat. In this football season, Uber Eats has the best deals on game day food, no matter what you're craving, from two-for-one pizza to buy one-get-one wings. Uber Eats will be dropping new deals each week, all season long. Uber Eats, official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. Terms and conditions apply. See out for details. Speaking of tonight's game, there's a nice little bit of history that we can look back on and we can look forward on for tonight that has some nice connective tissue for the Pittsburgh Penguins. On this day, in Penguins history, 21 years ago, October 10th of 2003, Mark Andre Flurry makes his NHL debut. In that game, he made 46 saves on 48 shots and the Penguins lost three to nothing to the Los Angeles Kings. Now, why is this significant? Well, fast forward 21 years to today, Flurry is entering his final NHL season as the Minnesota wild dropped the puck on their year later this evening, but also the Penguins have another young goaltender whose nickname just so happens to also be Flower that is expected to make his NHL debut. So 21 years ago, Flower, Mark Andre Flurry makes his debut today. Joel Blancfist expected to make his debut the Bloma, Joel Blancfist. So how interesting, how excited are you for Joel Blancfist to get that opportunity tonight in Detroit? The day bloom, if you will. I hated that. Oh, that's what I thought you're going to eventually follow up with whenever you... I am the king of dad jokes, but that one... It doesn't help that it's... Oh, whatever. Anyway, getting into the weeds. It's... I'm excited for it because it's something fresh. It's something new. Again, maybe we would have seen it last night, had it not been a back-to-back, but it's always exciting when a top prospect shows his face in the league, starts to get his feet wet and most importantly gets his debut. If that's the direction the Penguins are going in tonight, it'll be exciting to see how he performs. And I mean, it was exciting to see Rock 'n' Regordi get some ice time last night. Again, you can't take anyone's game really too seriously after last night, but it's good to see him get that sort of bump. Sam will go for Blomquist today. Sam went for all the, like, Sam Pool in a couple years back, and, you know, we were all waiting for Bray and Yager, but here it is with Rock 'n' Regordi, who we are expecting to be better. And when it comes to Blomquist, it's just exciting to see these problems. They need to see these prospects in their chances. They've gotten their reps in in pre-season in the AHL, and now it's, now it's Blomquist's turn to, you know, step up at the NHL level. And again, the Penguins put a lot of faith in them last, at the end of last season, expecting him to have a nice long playoff run at the AHL. He didn't get it, but there's injuries happen, and here we are. So it's just an exciting time. That's all I got for it. I don't know too much else. I haven't seen him play at all, so I'm just excited to see what can come from the situation. Yeah, last season, Joe Blomquist spent the entire year in the American Hockey League. He was a rookie. Last year in the AHL had a 25-12 and 6 record finished with a 9-21-8 percentage and a 2.16 goals against average. We did see a little bit of Blomquist against this very team last Monday when he came in in relief of Alex Nadelkovich, who left about 10 minutes into that first period. Blomquist made 20 saves on 21 shots in the five-to-one preseason victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins over those Detroit Red Wings. So you're hoping to see a repeat performance later tonight. I thought in that game, Blomquist was very steady and very sturdy against guys like Kane, guys like to brink it, especially because there was a lot of power play opportunities for the Red Wings in that one. Blomquist made a couple of 10 bell saves. He made the easy saves. I think he set up very well for his NHL debut tonight. Now, outside of tonight, I wanted to ask for what? What are your expectations for Blomquist this season? Obviously, we mentioned the only reason he's in this position now is because Alex Nadelkovich is on the shelf, but the Pittsburgh Penguins goal-tending situation is a very intriguing one and one that doesn't seem like it's going to be set in stone throughout the year if they have any say about it. What are your expectations for Blomquist as he enters this second year in North America? I chose him. I forget which category it was exactly. During one of our prediction episodes, I took him for either breakout or unsung hero. Something like that. So clearly, my expectations are high. What I am hoping to see is maybe he steals the backup role from someone and given the way Jari is pacing so far after one game, we see where the goal-tending situation might go for the Penguins. Of course, Nadelkovich still has to return from injury, but in this little trial run, he's going to probably get for maybe like a week or two at the most. You're expecting big things from him right away and if he has to come back at some point during the season because of other injuries or maybe the move happened, it'll be up to him to steal an NHL role, obviously likely in the back of position, but that's sort of what I'm hoping for and expecting, and that's essentially a bold prediction for me too. So when it comes to what I'm expecting, just for him to be maybe a regular NHL or come game 82. Yeah, I think the script is pretty clear for Joel Blomquist. It's get a handful of starts here at the NHL level. Hopefully make a good impression and no matter what he does, unless, like you said, the trade ends up happening in the next couple of weeks, which I wouldn't imagine it does after last night. I think that that's going to let everybody settle down and say, all right, well, we're going to pump the brakes, not to mention the fact that there are not very many trades that happen in the first month or two of the season to begin with, he will be sent down. So Blomquist will get sent down back to the AHL. My hope is that he remains as steady as he was in the net as he was last year at that level, and hopefully, as you mentioned, he gets called back up by the end of the season. I think that has always been kind of the best-case scenario for those that want to see Joel Blomquist kind of establish himself at the NHL level, knowing that it's going to take some time throughout the season, that it's not going to be right away. He does get this opportunity. He does make the team out of camp, which is a nice feather in his cap. Let's see if he's able to go out there and take advantage of it. [MUSIC] Let's finish today's episode by doing our weekly pens poll. We typically do these on Tuesdays, but because this Tuesday was, you know, opening week of the season, had a lot going on, was also joined by Joe Brand, the radio voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So if you have yet to listen to that interview, go back and check it out. We enjoyed our time talking with Joe about his time in Chicago, making the transition over to Pittsburgh and a lot of kind words for the old two niner, which I know a lot of our listeners are also big fans of Phil Bork. But let's close this one out with our weekly pens poll. We asked, who will lead the Penguins bottom six in scoring this season? The options we gave you were the entire third line or other. Yes, a pull your V, a lot of people loving what he did in the preseason. I mean, eight points in four games. I would love what he did in the preseason too. 50% of the vote though, or what 50% say. Pull your V is going to lead the Penguins bottom six in scoring 28%. Go with Lars Ellar, who led the Penguins bottom six in scoring last year, and is currently still their third line center. 20% say Rucker McGrody and 2% say others. So what say you? Who leads the Penguins bottom six in scoring in 2024? Twenty five. So is my first question responses is Rucker McGrody's percentage so low because he's going to get the boost to the top six? That'd be my sort of rationale for it. Yeah, I wouldn't say that's a guarantee until a little bit later in the season. I mean, he looked fine last night, but I think, I mean, I don't know because the Penguins top line didn't look too good. I mean, Drew O'Connor was bounced off of that line. Anthony Bovillier led the team in shots, but again, how many of those were shots that actually could have beaten Shastark? You know, not even given day. I don't know. So I mean, maybe, maybe there's just a necessity, but I also think there's a guy that is the healthy scratch that could potentially take one of those roles, not to mention Brian Russ's return. Yep, glad you said about Terry Pusniks. I was thinking the same thing. It could be anyone because the bottom six is so up in the air. Again, like the Gordy might end the year in the top six. Anthony Bovillier might be sent down to the bottom six whenever Brian Russ comes back. And to give a final answer, I'm going to also go with Valtteri Pusniks. I think he'll eventually make the NHL get into the lineup, I should say, and produce and be a useful player and find that new level and give Mike Sullivan a reason to keep him in the lineup. And not send him to the press box. Big things are expected from him. It was tough to make this lineup, and I think the lineup that is being put out on the ice right now is... Listen, again, taking game one of the greatest salt, this is a pretty good lineup overall. Genuinely, if the chemistry builds and things grow and everyone progresses in the right direction, Brian Russ returns and bumps somebody out. I think some shuffling can happen. I mean, this team falls apart, expects the moves. Valtteri Pusniks might find his way into the lineup and be able to produce in the bottom six. I was going to say, when you're looking at shuffling, Mulcan and Crosby had many shifts together last night. Okay, that was another wild... Half time watching this game, I'm like... It looks like late mid-third period where we're getting blown out. It's a second period. The line shuffling that Mike Sullivan was doing, it's game one, second period, and we're already hitting shuffle. We're already changing things up. First of all, that shows that there's at least some... Hey, let's wake up now. Let's not hesitate to get things rolling. Yeah, there's some urgency. That's the word I was looking for, thank you. There is some urgency with this team, which is good to see. It's a good start. Now it's just a matter of getting that urgency to work out into something. Listen, if Mulcan doesn't have the legs to play center anymore, stick him on the wing and just let it fly. I mean, because once Mulcan does... If Mulcan does have the legs to play center anymore, that likely means this team is going nowhere to do it. Why not? Here's the thing, though. I don't think they made that decision because of getting Mulcan wasn't getting the job done at center. Absolutely. I think they made that decision because Crosby's wingers were not playing well at all. I don't expect Drew O'Connor to play as bad as he did last night all season long. But that's the reason that Mulcan was bounced up because I thought the second line looked really good when it was all together. Raquel, Mulcan, and Bunting, I thought they created a lot of opportunities. I thought they played well, especially in that first period. So I think the reason that move was made was because Crosby was out there on an island trying to figure something out with two guys that just were not clicking at the moment. Correct. That's the actual question here. I would love to say Rucker McGrory. And the 20% of you that did, I appreciate it. I have a hard time, though, believing that a rookie who's 20 years old, who is what? The 12th player, the 12th youngest player to ever play. Extra Crosby or to make his debut since Crosby was made his debut. Something like that. Penguins PR put it out yesterday. I have a hard time believing he's going to come in and he's going to just be able to accumulate. That's a hard word to say at the morning. Points at that level. So I was going to say Lars Eller because he did it last year, but I think the bottom six is raised in a level. I'll go with Poliarvi. I'm a little hesitant to go with the preseason all star because I think everybody is kind of in on him. But I also, again, I liked what I saw from him last night as well. So he transitioned that into the regular season as much as any because last night, as you mentioned, it was a mixed bag of emotions and performances. But I'll go with yes, a Poliarvi. I think that this is a guy who has the pedigree, who has the history of being able to score in bunches and has certainly a solid role with this team as the start of the season happens. Yeah. Yeah, I like that choice too. I just, it is just tough picking the preseason all star. Really? We saw it last year with Janssen Harkin who ended up scoring zero goals last year. Or Redeemes a Horna. Don't forget he was even good in the preseason. That's how bad his season went. Again, this is not me saying Jesse Poliarvi is going to have a bad season. I have to expect you a great season from him. I just think there's other chances for other players. And again, essentially my Poliarvi, essentially play the same position. But if someone's able to take the left side, those two could share a line and do great things, which I would like to see. So that third line, Poliarvi, Eller, McGrury, we talked a little bit about it. But I thought they had some good chances on opening night. Their final line here, a little bit over eight minutes of five on five play. Out attempting the New York Rangers 11 to six and shot attempts when they were on the ice. Outshooting the Rangers eight to four. And of course they gave up the one goal and didn't create a goal because nobody on the Penguins did. But I thought a pretty decent night for the Penguins third line to start this season out. Absolutely. I liked what they were doing. They were out chasing them at first. They were out chasing them. They're getting pucks on net. They were taking opportunities and creating opportunities and getting nothing really fully fledged out. But a good trio that once Rust returns to health, McGrury might be in the A, but with plenty of opportunity to return. I think that line brought it early, but I do like what they were able to do off the jump. And everyone on the lineup got hit with a minus. So can't take too much in terms of opportunities against, because everyone was given up opportunities against. But that was promising to see, again, game one, the start of what could be something, I don't want to say spectacular, but could be something positive for the Penguins lineup. Especially in the depth that has been rudderless the last two years. I was supposed to say comparatively you might be five years. You can use the word spectacular comparatively because what you've seen over the last couple of seasons has been so far below the line that even if you sniff the line, it might be considered spectacular for the Pittsburgh Penguins bottom six and specifically for their third line. But I think that's something that you can kind of hang your hat on if you're going to take anything from the first game, which there was not much to take. Maybe it's that the third line didn't look horrible. Maybe it's that the third line showed some promise. But that's going to do it for this episode of the tip of the iceberg. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this one. Remember, you can find us on YouTube at tip of the iceberg. Make sure to like, share, subscribe to this video, or you can find us anywhere you get your podcast from. We'll see you guys next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
