The Penguins take the ice at PPG Paints Arena for their first preseason game tonight, against Columbus. Pens’ coach Mike Sullivan will sprinkle a few veterans into the lineup with rookies and minor leaguers trying to hook on. Goaltender Tristan Jarry will dress for the game and presumably split time with Filip Lindberg in goal. Other vets on the ice tonight will include Kasperi Kapanen, Sam Lafferty, Evan Rodrigues, and Dominik Simon among the forwards; and John Marino, Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel, and Mark Friedman on the blue line.
Penguins are without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin right now, but Sullivan says they have plenty of veteran leadership in the locker room.
One of the Penguins’ three three-time Stanley Cup champions is defenseman Kris Letang (the other two are Crosby and Malkin). Sullivan says Letang is not a vocal leader in the locker room, but he leads by example on the ice.
When the Penguins lost forward Brandon Tanev in the expansion draft, they lost not just a speedy winger, but also a gritty player who led them in hits last season. They quickly signed a similar player, former Carolina forward Brock McGinn, who says he is settling in nicely working the third line with Teddy Bleuger and Zach Aston-Reese.
The Penguins are not big and neither is McGinn, at only six feet tall and 187 pounds, but he says that doesn’t mean they can’t play the game with a gritty edge.
The Penguins have trimmed the training camp roster by ten players. Six of them were sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and the others were returned to the junior teams.
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