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Mike Sullivan Reflects After Facing His Former Penguins Team
Photo credit: Edit from New York Post
Former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan faced his old team last night, and it was one he will want to quickly forget after his Rangers got shut out by a 3-0 score.
Arturs Silovs shut the door on all 25 shots he faced to claim his first NHL shutout in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 3-0 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The win was a discouraging one for Mike Sullivan's coaching debut behind the Rangers' bench and gave the Penguins a solid opening-night effort to start the season. Sullivan commented on facing his former team for the first time.
"I think my first observation is, we got a long way to go to become the team we want to become," Sullivan said. "I thought we had moments in the game where we were playing the game that we envisioned... but it's not nearly consistently enough."
Silovs, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on July 13, played in his 20th career regular-season game.
This was the First Shutout of Arturs Silovs' Career
The 23-year-old goaltender had already recorded a playoff shutout with Vancouver in the 2023-24 season, but this is his first in the regular season.
Justin Brazeau accounted for two Pittsburgh goals, and Evgeni Malkin registered assists on each goal. The evening was also a career milestone for Dan Muse, who earned the victory in his first game as an NHL head coach.
"It's a huge honor, it really is," Muse said. "I've said it before and I'll keep saying it again when the questions asked of me. It's an honor to just be in this league in any way, shape or form and so to be a head coach especially in this organization with the history here, words couldn't properly describe how much of an honor it is.
"You always want to start things off on the right foot and I thought we got contributions from everybody today. ... It's a good start. Enjoy it tonight, turn the page and back to work here tomorrow."
"You always want to start things off on the right foot and I thought we got contributions from everybody today. ... It's a good start. Enjoy it tonight, turn the page and back to work here tomorrow."
Muse had been an assistant coach with the Rangers before taking over after Sullivan left the Penguins in April.
Rangers Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots in the loss. New York was shut out in a season opener for the first time since 2020-21 and had trouble generating chances, went 0-for-2 on the power play, and was outshot 15-5 in the third.
Brazeau scored late in the first, off the backhander of a faceoff pickup by Malkin at 19:28. He scored an empty-netter with a little more than two minutes remaining, and Blake Lizotte completed the 3-0 shutout a few minutes later.
It was a statement victory for Pittsburgh, one that provided Silovs and Muse with a night to remember, while providing Sullivan and the Rangers with a lot of questions to ask to begin their season.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 8 | 56 ANSWERS Mike Sullivan Reflects After Facing His Former Penguins Team Who is the better head coach? | ||
| Dan Muse | 34 | 60.7 % |
| Mike Sullivan | 22 | 39.3 % |
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