Becasue I neglected to mention this in yesterday's post, I wanted to give a quick shout-out this morning to the Penguins' top offensive prospect, Eric Tangradi, who made his NHL debut in Sunday's season finale on the road against the New York Islanders.
I was anxious to see Tangradi at the NHL level for the first time, and with the Penguins' missing forwards Alexei Ponikarovsky, Chris Kunitz and Matt Cooke, I new that Tangradi would get some good ice time.
Wearing #56, Tangradi saw a little over 13 minutes of action, and didn't look the least bit out of place doing it. In fact, he created decent offense when he was out there, and showed that his skating -- said to be somewhat of a limitation for him -- didn't really impair his game at the big-league level.
In fact, Tangradi got more ice time as the game went on, gaining the trust of head coach Dan Bylsma, and demonstrating that he might yet compete for a roster spot coming out of training camp next season after completing his first full professional year in the American Hockey League with Wilkes-Barre.
The only thing I felt Tangradi needed to do more of was mix it up a little bit. He registered several hits in the game, but seemed to shy away from the scrums which so commonly happen in the NHL after play is stopped.
Because Tangradi is a rookie, he's going to have to show right off the bat that he will stand up for yourself and push back a little. He's got the size and strength, so he's going to have to battle out there if he wants to fit the prototypical power-forward mold for the Penguins in the future.
Overall, though, I was impressed with him in his first game, and hope we can see more of that from him in the future.
Tangradi was returned to Wilkes-Barre for the first round of the playoffs.
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