PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – As the Pens open practice for the 2021 season Sunday at PPG Paints Arena, there are few position battles. There will however, be battles every game when looking at this new East Division.
“The East is a very strong division,” said Pens GM Jim Rutherford. “There are teams that are used to each other. We got good rival teams in there.”
The divisions scheduled to make travel easier for teams and it includes an all-Canada grouping.
As Rutherford mentioned, the Pens are in the East which consists of the Islanders, Rangers, Flyers, Devils, Caps along with the Sabres and Boston.
“We’re playing a small amount of teams an awful lot,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “It’s going to have a playoff feel to it. There’s a lot of rivalries within our division. There’s a lot of good teams, competitive teams within our division. I think that’s going to make for exciting hockey and competitive hockey.”
“Certainly exciting for our fans,” Rutherford said. “I hope the fans can get the opportunity to see the games live as soon as it’s safe enough. It’s an exciting division for all the fans in the East Division and it will obviously be very competitive.”
With only 56 of a normal 82 game schedule, it will be harder to recover from a slow start or an extended slump.
“We’re playing the teams that we’re playing, really good rival teams,” Rutherford said. “The intensity of these games will be like playoff games. Goaltending always important. It’s going to be an important part in a shortened season because there is not a lot of margin for error. Everything is going to be important. Everybody has to do their job, but goaltending always makes a difference in wins and losses.”
The Pens traded their two-time Stanley Cup winning goalie, Matt Murray, in the off-season and will lean on Tristan Jarry. He had it rolling last season until losing his final four games giving up 18 goals. The 25-year-old was the Pens second round pick in 2013 and finished with a 2.43 goals against average and .921 save percentage.
Casey DeSmith, 29, will be the backup. The New Hampshire star has 50 career NHL games with a .917 save percentage and 2.66 goals against average.
“We like our core guys,” Rutherford said. “Of course we will have to see how the goaltending plays out. Tristan had a terrific year last year, he’s ready to take that next step. We’ll see how that goes. Of course, DeSmith was here two years ago, had a very good year. It’s time to be excited, but also time to see what we really have.”
Pens traded for their former first round pick Kasperi Kapanen to be a top six forward, signed 6’4” Mark Jankowski, brought back forward Evan Rodrigues, signed defenseman Cody Ceci and traded gritty forward Patric Hornqvist to Florida for 26 year-old defenseman Mike Matheson, a 2012 first round pick and bottom six forward Colton Sceviour.
“It’s always exciting when you make changes,” Rutherford said. “It’s exciting but you are a little nervous too because you don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out. We have some guys, new guys that are coming in that have had good years and are good players, some coming off a little bit of off years for them. It will be interesting to see how their game plays out. We have our fingers crossed that they all get back to the level where they were at their best.”
No exhibition games this season and 10 days from the start of training camp to the start of the season, January 13 at Philadelphia.