Real Penguins Top Faux Sabres, 3-1

For all intents and purposes, the real Pittsburgh Penguins, or a reasonable facsimile, played their first exhibition game last night, topping a Sabres squad largely comprised of second-tier players by a 3-1 count.

Rather than write a traditional game summary, I thought I’d share my impressions. Totally subjective of course.

Here goes.

My word, is Erik Karlsson fast. Make that F-A-S-T. I knew he could skate, but not like this. At the risk of drawing fire from my esteemed colleague, Other Rick, a few of his bursts were truly Paul Coffey-esque. While nobody’s going to confuse Karlsson with stay-at-home stalwart Dave Burrows, he was often the first man back to defend. Bottom line…the speedy Swede is going to help us.

Drew O’Connor was the best player on the ice…by far. He scored two goals and legitimately could’ve potted at least five. Needless to say, DOC asserted himself, using his size and speed to full advantage. This summer I wrote a pie-in-the-sky article comparing his slow and gradual development to that of Tage Thompson, the Sabres’ superstar and goal getter.

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