Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Having played for them for parts of three seasons, defenseman Ben Lovejoy is quite familiar with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
But in the two-plus years since he was traded to Anaheim, quite a few things have changed. After being reacquired in a trade-deadline deal Monday, he admitted he doesn’t know much about how the team plays under first-year coach Mike Johnston.
“Not a whole lot other than the 6-3 butt-kicking we [the Ducks] got from them in the first game [of the season Oct. 9],” Lovejoy said. “But it’s clear things have changed. There’s new management, there’s new coaches. I went through the roster, there’s a lot of new players I didn’t play with.”
It isn’t entirely clear how Lovejoy or Ian Cole, another defenseman the team traded for Monday, will be used once they join the team for the game tonight at Colorado. Each player was on the road in a Western Conference city after games Sunday, and neither were present for practice Tuesday at Southpointe. Johnston said figuring out how to use them and who to use them with will take time.
“First, the defensive partner, who they play with,” Johnston said. “It will be important first to get a feel for them on the bench, in games, in practice, who we should best pair them with. The second part is when you look at the penalty-kill, you look at the power play, what are they going to do in those special-teams situations?
“It’s going to be sort of a trial and error for the first couple of games here as we get new players in our lineup to see who they best fit with.”
Lovejoy returns to Pittsburgh a different player. Having been primarily used as a No. 6 of 7 defenseman in his first stint with the Penguins, he was often used on Anaheim’s top pairing and usually saw assignments against opponents’ top lines.
“He improved a lot from the time from when he got there until the time I left,” said Penguins center Daniel Winnik, Lovejoy’s teammate the previous two seasons in Anaheim. “I know he’s improved even more this year.
“I think it was just confidence from getting out of the mindset of being a sixth, seventh defenseman. A guy who made a couple of mistakes, he’s out of the lineup. It takes a while to shake that off. but I think since he’s got the confidence of playing a lot, he’s played with Cam Fowler, who is a really good defenseman, so he’s fed off him nicely and I think that’s really boosted his play.”
Cole, a former first-round pick who never quite nailed down a regular role with St. Louis, could see an an increased role with the Penguins. With several all-star defensemen such as Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jay Bouwmeester on the roster, Cole appeared to get lost in the shuffle with the Blues.
“They have some great defensemen over there,” said Penguins winger David Perron, who played for the Blues from 2007-13. “You never want to be traded, but once it happens, a fresh start is needed sometimes, and I think he is one of the guys who can use it to his advantage.”
On paper, the Penguins appear to have lost an element in terms of physical play with the two defensemen they traded Monday. Simon Despres (184) and Robert Bortuzzo (116) were the team’s leaders in hits among defensemen. But that statistic may not be an entirely accurate or relevant barometer for physical play.
“For [defensemen] it’s different I think,” Winnik said. “You play Detroit and you’ve got these guys that bump you just a bit, and I consider that physical because it stops you from getting the puck.”
One thing that was clear after each trade was the emphasis Penguins management placed on puck possession over physical play.
“It’s important to have defense out there than can move the puck when [centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin] are out there,” general manager Jim Rutherford said. “Those guys want the puck, and they want to go and go on the offense.”