Penguins Lay Season-Opening Egg

Merriam-Webster defines a mixed bag as follows: one having both positive and negative qualities. Well, that pretty much defines the Penguins’ lopsided 6-3 season-opening loss to the blood rival Flyers last night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Yeah, there were some positives…most notably the play of the bottom six. But there was a heapin’ helpin’ of negative thrown in.

I didn’t watch the game on TV, but I did listen to it on the radio, which sometimes can give you a unique perspective on the proceedings. Here are my impressions.

The Good

The Third Line—I know…it’s almost as if we entered a parallel universe where up is down and down is up. Especially since the third line has been a black hole in recent seasons. But it was a definite plus (two goals, three assists, seven shots on goal, a collective plus-three).

Leading the way was center Mark Jankowski. The former Flame staked the black and gold an early lead, hammering home a feed from Jared McCann. For good measure, he set up our third goal as well with a beautiful cross-ice backhand dish to collegiate teammate Brandon Tanev, who rifled the puck home from the left circle.

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