The Pittsburgh Penguins needed to add more edge to their team heading into 2025-26. When you're so top-heavy, and you don't have much talent to boast beyond your top six forwards, the only way you're winning this season is if you capitalize on the intimidation factor.
Well, guess what? Newcomers Matt Dumba and Connor Clifton came, saw, and laid the smackdown in tonight's preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, it may've been a practice game that'll never count in the standings, but it doesnt mean the old faces in new places didn't want to show fans what'll be in store for them when the season rolls around.
Dumba blocked a shot while delivering three body checks, and Clifton got in front of two pucks and also put up three hits. That's what Penguins fans needed to see, and if this dynamic duo keeps up with the intimidation factor, then opponents are gonna think twice before crossing them, or going after bigger-name players.
That's what I want to see from the Pens going forward. If they can't match an opponent in talent, match them in brute strength and make sure they remember who you are every time you go in to land a body check.
Pittsburgh Penguins fans have got to love the edginess early on in the preseason
Overall, Clifton and Dumba were responsible for over a quarter of the Penguins body checks. Now, while a contingent of the players dressing tonight won't make the final roster, it showed us that yes, these two are adding much-needed value to the table, even if that's all they're good for this season.
But it should go beyond the Connor Clifton-Mathew Dumba combo. The Pens saw an epic performance from Joel Blomqvist, who stopped all 11 shots he faced. Blomqvist needs to show he's the No. 1 netminder of the future, and he did himself a lot of favors tonight in what became a defensive struggle.
Blomqvist, alongside Dumba and Clifton, are three building blocks to what looks like a patchwork puzzle in the Steel City this season. All three of them are still young enough, especially Blomqvist, to make Pittsburgh their home for a while if they keep showing up and playing their brand of hockey like they did tonight.
Yeah, it's just one preseason game that nobody will remember this time next year. But it's in the preseason when you look at some talent and say, "Yeah, that guy's gonna be valuable for us this season." Blomqvist, Clifton, and Dumba each drove that point home tonight.