Top Defenseman Looked Promising in Penguins Debut
Ryan Graves produces a strong showing in Pittsburgh Penguins debut.
The Pittsburgh Penguins began the season on the wrong foot, losing 4-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks on home ice. Blackhawks' rookie Connor Bedard stole the headlines as he notched an assist in his NHL debut to help the Blackhawks comeback from a 2-0 deficit, with Erik Karlsson's Penguins debut serving as the undercard.
Before Karlsson was acquired, the Penguins' marquee offseason acquisition was left-handed defenseman Ryan Graves. Last night began the first of six seasons for Graves with the Penguins, and the 28-year-old blue liner made a good first impression.
Graves was signed by the Penguins this offseason to supplant Brian Dumoulin as the team's top defensive defenseman. He was deployed as such in his debut by head coach Mike Sullivan, who started Graves on the top pairing next to Kris Letang.
He finished with just over 20 minutes of ice time, five of which came on the penalty kill, and had a -1 rating on the game thanks to an unfortunate bounce that led to Jason Dickinson's game-winning goal.
Graves was caught in a precarious position as the shot attempt by Correy Perry caromed off Sidney Crosby and directly to Dicksinson's stick blade. He reached his stick out to disrupt the shot but had already committed to protecting the net front and couldn't reach Dickinson before he fired the shot past Tristan Jarry.
Outside that moment, Graves played a solid first game in a Penguins uniform. He was strong on the puck in the defensive zone and moved the puck fluidly on the breakout on multiple occasions.
Defensively, only eight of the Blackhawks' 18 shot attempts when Graves was on the ice at even strength made it through to Jarry, and he was on the ice for only two of the Blackhawks' ten high-danger scoring chances.
Graves and the rest of the Penguins are far from a finished product one game into the season. But there are plenty of encouraging signs to take away from his first game with the organization.
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