Penguins Young D-Men Withstand Pressure, Begin to Impress (+)

CRANBERRY, Twp — It must have been a little bit embarrassing for Owen Pickering. Seated in the nearly empty auxiliary dressing room with only a handful of remaining players who will be sent to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins or released later this week, Pittsburgh Hockey Now asked Pickering about a topic many of us might be uncomfortable addressing.

Himself.

Pickering, 20, earned a couple of chuckles from his roommates, and PHN got some courtesy praise for good questions, but it may not be long before Pickering is sitting in the main Penguins locker room having to learn cliches and dodging questions from a full-fledged media scrum.

In fact, both Pickering, the Penguins’ 2022 first-round pick (21st overall), and Harrison Brunicke, the 2024 second-round pick (44th overall), not only acquitted themselves well this week but also drew attention to themselves by succeeding against NHL competition.

Before travel nightmares and a national TV audience clamored for the Pittsburgh Penguins championship trident Sunday night, the Penguins were set to dress their young defensemen for a game against the Detroit Red Wings Saturday.

The game against the Detroit Red Wings was instead rescheduled for Monday, but a shimmering silver lining emerged for the Penguins and coach Mike Sullivan.

Instead of an exhibition for his NHL lineup on Sunday, Sullivan was able to add a pair of defenseman prospects against largely NHL competition provided by the Ottawa Senators. Because of the compact schedule this week, Sullivan will again insert Pickering and Brunicke into an NHL-heavy lineup Tuesday when the Penguins host the Detroit Red Wings.

After sitting on the runway for hours Saturday, probably just hoping to get to Detroit to get the game over with, perhaps the greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

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