By STEPHEN WHYNO
Justin Brazeau scored twice, Arturs Silovs stopped all 25 photographs he confronted for his first regular-season NHL shutout, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 3-0 on Tuesday evening in every workforce’s opener.
Dan Muse gained his debut as Penguins coach along with his predecessor, Mike Sullivan, on the opposite bench operating his first recreation with the Rangers. Sullivan guided Pittsburgh to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and ’17 as a part of an almost decade-long run there earlier than parting methods in April.
Brazeau and Silovs have been additionally taking part in for the Penguins for the primary time. Brazeau signed as a free agent, whereas Silovs joined in a commerce from Vancouver.
Evgeni Malkin led off his twentieth season within the league by organising Brazeau’s aim. Malkin beat Vincent Trocheck on an offensive zone faceoff to get the puck to Brazeau, who was alone in entrance and roofed a backhander previous Igor Shesterkin.
Brazeau’s first aim with 32 seconds remaining within the first got here close to the tip of a interval that Pittsburgh managed the play for a lot of the time. Silovs blockered away a shot from Alexis Lafrenière within the closing seconds of an early Rangers energy play however didn’t need to make too many different spectacular saves to get the win.
With Shesterkin pulled for an additional attacker, Brazeau had an empty-netter with 2:12 left, and Blake Lizotte sealed it with one other 20 seconds later.
Mika Zibanejad, who Sullivan placed on new captain J.T. Miller’s proper wing to begin the season, was some of the noticeable gamers for New York. Zibanejad missed the online on a few scoring possibilities but additionally had a game-high seven photographs on aim.
Defeating the Rangers gave the Penguins one thing to have a good time on opening evening as Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang made some historical past. They grew to become the primary trio within the 4 main North American males’s skilled sports activities leagues to play 20 seasons along with the identical workforce.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday evening.
Rangers: Go to Buffalo on Thursday evening.
