Pens succeed in opener
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins spent the offseason revamping the front office, replacing the coaching staff and tinkering with a roster that went five straight springs falling to lower-seeded opponents in the playoffs.
Yet some things remained constant. Well, one thing mostly: Sidney Crosby.
The two-time MVP scored twice and added an assist as the Penguins beat the Anaheim Ducks 6-4 on Thursday night to make Mike Johnston a winner in his NHL head coaching debut.
“We have a lot of new faces,” Crosby said. “You’re always excited to play the first one but especially with so many new faces I think we used that energy to our advantage.”
Pascal Dupuis added a goal and three assists in his return from knee surgery. Patrick Hornqvist, Blake Comeau and Brandon Sutter also scored for Pittsburgh while Olli Maatta chipped in three assists in his first game of any kind after sitting out the preseason to recuperate from shoulder surgery. Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves.
Corey Perry had the sixth hat trick of his career for the Ducks, who collapsed after erasing an early three-goal deficit. Ryan Kesler added a goal in his debut with Anaheim. John Gibson struggled while making his first start in his hometown, stopping 33 of 39 shots.
“We want to play better,” Anaheim defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. “There were far too many things that went wrong. We need to figure this out because that was embarrassing.”
The 21-year-old Gibson earned the starting job following a stellar playoff in which he took over for Jonas Hiller. Coach Bruce Boudreau wanted to give Gibson the nod in the opener so the Pittsburgh native could play in front of friends and family. He also had to play in front of the Penguins, who pounced early and never trailed.
“We’ve got to do a better job helping out our goaltender,” Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf said. “We kind of hung him out tonight and tried to play a run-and-gun game against a team that scores goals that well.”
That part won’t change under Johnston, hired to replace Dan Bylsma in June and tasked with making sure Crosby and Evgeni Malkin’s primes don’t go to waste.
The early returns were promising.
