Empty Thoughts: Penguins 3, Blues 0

Observations from the Penguins’ 3-0 win against the Blues.

There’s a lot you can do a lot in eight months.

You can come close to making a new human being in that time.

Or complete two semesters of college.

Another possibility going from being the starting quarterback at Samford to holding the same position with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For Stefan Noesen, eight months is what it took for him to find his way back to the NHL.

Prior to Wednesday, his last game of consequence in the NHL came on April 4 with the New Jersey Devils. In a ho-hum 3-1 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, he had one shot in 10:32 of ice time.

Then, nothing for eight months.

After the Devils let him walk as a restricted free agent, he and his agent cold called just about every contract they had looking for work in the NHL. The only bite he got was a tryout with his hometown Dallas Stars who kicked the tires on the Plano, Texas native, possibly out of provincial sentiment.

Noesen didn’t impress the Stars who released him from his tryout agreement in late September.

Reaching out to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins coach Mike Vellucci, who guided him as a junior with the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers, Noesen got an AHL deal and almost immediately took off.

He scored 22 points (14 goals, eight assists) in only 22 games before the NHL Penguins signed him to an NHL deal on Monday.

A little more than 48 hours later, he scored his first goal with his new team. And it was a pretty snazzy goal to boot.

Noesen has talent. That’s why he was a first-round pick of the Senators in 2011 (No. 21 overall). But injuries have largely derailed his professional career. He didn’t even put up big numbers in the AHL in stops with the Norfolk Admirals or San Diego Gulls.

Aside from a respectable 13 goals in 72 games with the 2017-18 New Jersey Devils, Noesen’s NHL career has not been remarkable whatsoever.

But for some reason, he’s clicked with how the Penguins, the NHL and AHL versions, play.

Why here but not any of his other stops?

“That’s a good question,” Noesen said. “I honestly don’t know. I love the way that we’re playing. I love the way they have us. They kind of let us be ourselves in a way while playing in a structure. I did feel at times when I was in (New) Jersey, I wasn’t able to do that. Sometimes, that’s when your confidence kind of goes down. It seems like here, you have a little bit longer of a leash in a sense. Whenever you’re able to do that, you’re able to make plays and you don’t hold your stick as tight. I get to be me.”

It may have taken eight months for Noesen to find himself as well as a new home. It appears the wait was worth it.

“The offseason was pretty long,” Noesen said. “Not signing right away and not knowing where I was. Once you get back to playing hockey again, it’s just hockey. You go out there and play and do your best and try to find your way back.”

What happened

The Penguins opened the scoring only 39 seconds into regulation. Forcing Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson into a turnover in St. Louis’ right corner, Penguins forward Brandon Tanev controlled the puck behind the net and fed a pass to defenseman Marcus Pettersson at the left point. Surveying the zone for a moment, Pettersson launched a wrister towards the cage. Penguins forward Teddy Blueger was positioned above the crease and deflected the puck past the glove of goaltender Jordan Binnington. Pettersson and Tanev netted assists.

(Video courtesy of NHL)

The longest of longshot replacements made it a 2-0 game with only 40 seconds left in the second period.

After Penguins forward Jared McCann hounded Blues defenseman Justin Faulk into a turnover in St. Louis’ right corner, he fed a pass to forward Dominik Kahun on the left half wall, Kahun veered above the circle but fed a backhand pass back to McCann. From the left wall, McCann snapped a wrister on net. Noesen deflected the puck down into Binnington. As Binnington reacted to the initial save, Noesenwas able to draw in the rebound with his backhand and lifted a forehand shot into the crease for his first goal with the Penguins. McCann and Kahun netted assists.

(Video courtesy of NHL)

Another lost soul scored to put the Penguins up 3-0 at 4:59 of the third. After Blues forward Tyler Bozak fumbled a puck at the offensive blue line, Penguins forward Sam Lafferty fed it up ice to spring forward Alex Galchenyuk, the primary return in a trade which sent the popular Phil Kessel to the Arizona Coyotes, on a breakaway. Fending off Blues defensemen Colton Parayko and Jay Bouwmeester, Galchenyuk moved in on net and lifted a wrister under Binnington blocker for his second goal of the season. Lafferty had the lone assist.

(Video courtesy of NHL)

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 33-28.

• Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, forward Dominik Simon, Kahun and former Penguins forward David Perron each led the game with four shots.

• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang led the game with 27:48 of ice time on 31 shifts.

• Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo led the Blues with 23:34 of ice time on 28 shifts.

• The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 27-25 (52 percent).

• Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was 11 for 16 (69 percent).

• Blues forward Ryan O’Reilly was 14 for 24 (58 percent).

• Penguins defenseman John Marino and Blues defenseman Colton Parayko each led the game with three blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• Tristan Jarry made 28 saves to record his first shutout of the season and third of his career.

• This was only the fourth shutout by the Penguins ever against the Blues.

Ken Wregget made 25 saves in a 4-0 road win, Dec. 19, 1996.

Greg Millen made 33 saves in a 3-0 home win, Dec. 13, 1978.

Les Binkley made 22 saves in a 2-0 home win, Feb. 1, 1968.

• Noesen is the 529th player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• Noesen became the first native of Texas to play for the Penguins.

• Noesen was the 26th different player to wear No. 14 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Billy Dea, Rick Kessell, Ron Snell, Lowell MacDonald, Rene Robert, Wayne Bianchin, Nick Libett, Doug Shedden, Dan Quinn, Chris Kontos, Bryan Erickson, Jock Callander, Gordie Roberts, Dave Tippett, Markus Naslund, Ladislav Karabin, Mike Hudson, Brad Lauer, Stu Barnes, Pat Falloon, Milan Kraft, Shane Endicott, Chris Minard, Chris Kunitz, Tanner Pearson

Randomly speaking

• After his 10th game of the season, Jarry now has an 6-4-0 record along with a 2.02 goals against average, a .936 save percentage and one shutout.

• In his past six games, Jarry has a 5-1-0 record along with a 1.86 goals against average, a .940 save percentage and one shutout.

• In contrast, Matt Murray’s past six games have been … not as good. Over that span Murray is 0-3-2 along with a 3.99 goals against average and an .852 save percentage.

• The team was dealt another swerve on the healthy front when Jack Johnson came down with an illness in the morning. That led to the team dressing Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel and Zach Trotman.

• Marino ended up skating mainly with Letang on the top pairing after Johnson had worked with Letang the day prior in practice.

• In his Penguins debut, Noesen logged 12:48 of ice time on 18 shifts and recorded two shots as well as one blocked shots. He even logged 3:56 of ice time on the power play.

• The penalty kill was perfect going 4 for 4. They had allowed opposing power-play goals in their previous six games.

• The Penguins’ power play was 0 for 5.

• Poor Simon might need a hug after this game. He had several quality chances but just coundn’t bury any. At roughtly the 15:40 mark of the second period, he prematurely celebrate a “goal” which Binnington fought off:

(Video courtesy of NHL)

• At 14:47 of the third, a would-be goal by the Blues was waved off after officials ruled goaltender interference. The Blues, with nothing to lose at that juncture, issued a coach’s challenge but that was unsuccessful.

(Video courtesy of NHL)

• The Penguins are now 10-3-1 against Western Conference teams this season.

• New Pirates manager Derek Shelton and Steelers quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodgers were among the pro athletes on hand.

Publicly speaking

• Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on Jarry:

“He was terrific. He made some big saves for us throughout the course of the game. He was good on our penalty kill. A lot of times your goaltender has to be your best killer. He was tonight. He was playing with a lot of confidence. He saw the puck well. He plays the puck well too which is an added benefit. It helps our defensemen when we’re going back for pucks and he has the ability to play the puck himself. He helped us in a lot of areas.”

• Galchenyuk said it best about Jarry:

“When you get a shutout in this league, you’ve definitely played a hell of a game.”

• Jarry spoke about his rebound control and the emphasis management placed on it:

“As long as I’m managing my rebounds and making sure I’m doing what I can, it helps the guys a lot. … It just comes from last year. That was one thing (management) wanted me to improve on was just managing my rebounds and making sure there’s less rebounds the other team gets an opportunity at. … Just being more fluid and making sure you’re seeing the puck well. It helps when you can see the puck and put it into the places you want to.”

• Sullivan on the replacements:

“It’s so important to us becoming a team. These guys, they work so hard. They don’t get a lot of accolades for what they do but they’re real important players for our team. Chad Ruhwedel is a guy, he just comes to practice every day, he comes to work every day, he works extremely hard to keep himself read. I don’t know if I’ve been around another player that can miss or sit out the amount of games that he does. And then when he is called upon, he has the ability to be effective for us. It’s an important role for us. Teddy had a great game tonight. He scores a goal but he did so much more. He was good on the penalty kill. That’s the essence of a team, when everyone is getting involved, when everybody is buying in. We’re playing for each other. It’s really fun to watch as a coach when you watch how hard the guys are playing for one another. They’re competing hard out there.”

• Noesen had some nerves in his Penguins debut:

“The first period, I had a lot of energy and I guess adrenaline going. So in between periods, I had to kind of catch my breath and understand that we actually are in a hockey game here and there is three periods.”

• Sullivan on Noesen:

“He’s really good at the net front. He had a Patric Hornqvist-type goal tonight. He has good size, he has good hands, he has that hand-eye coordination, he knocks the puck out of the air, he’s strong on the puck, he’s good in the battle areas. That’s what I witnessed in the first game. That’s something that (general manager) Jim Rutherford and Mike Vellucci has talked about. We liked his game. That was one of the reasons why we used him on the power play in front of the net. That’s an important position, a guy that’s willing to stand there, take the goalie’s sight lines away and then have the ability to get his stick on pucks, whether it’s deflections or rebounds or whatever it may be. He scores a big goal for us tonight. We’re certainly excited that he’s a part of the team. This is something, as I’ve said, we’ve been talking about for a little while now.”

• Sullivan on his team’s play in general:

“We compete hard. We’re hard to play against. We’re getting better away from the puck. Everyone is buying into the team concept. When we do that, we can win on any given night regardless of who is in our lineup. We still have some difference makers in the lineup every night, guys like (Malkin) and Jake (Guentzel), (Letang), players of that sort. But all the other guys are really making contributions. When that happens, I think we’re a good hockey team. I’m proud of the group. I really believe this group is becoming a close-knit group. They play hard for one another. The players deserve a lot of credit for their commitment to just playing the hard and playing the game smart.”

• Marino on the penalty kill’s improvement:

“I thought we were a lot more structured out there and a lot more aggressive on loose pucks. It showed today.”

• Galchenyuk said he’s not down about getting less playing time as of late:

“I’m playing in the best league in the world. There’s nothing discouraging. I’ve got to go out there, work hard and enjoy the game that I love. Keep working and sticking and improving with my game.”

• After getting whipped by the Blues in St. Louis, 5-2, on Saturday, the Penguins had three days off, including two practice days. Sullivan spoke to the benefit of that break:

“It helps. It just gives us an opportunity to maybe do some different things, break the film down different ways so we can try to get better on the ice. But we also try to get better off the ice with some of the video sessions that we had. They were real productive days. It also gives our guys an opportunity to recover a little bit. They’re playing the game really hard. It’s taxing when you play the amount of games the NHL demands.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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