Valtteri Puustinen became the latest “Mark Donk” type of Penguin sensation to come out of no where and make a positive impact in the NHL last night. In addition to recording an assist on a smart up ice pass to give a breakaway to Brock McGinn, Puustinen excelled in the advanced areas of the game against the Vegas Golden Knights as well.
There were encouraging signs in his game, like the way he called for the puck from John Marino on a 6v5 delayed penalty situation. Or some of the areas he found to settle in as play went on looking for a scoring chance (one such play resulted in a shooting misfire from a puck that rolled off his stick, otherwise we might have been talking about Puustinen’s first NHL goal).