UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- After two games and change, the grand Sidney Crosby-Phil Kessel experiment came to its end Monday night.
Time of death: The 00:00 mark of the third period.
That's when the puck dropped to start the final period of play on Long Island with Derick Brassard lined up as Crosby's left winger and Jake Guentzel moving over to the right side.
Don't fret for Kessel, he was reunited with Evgeni Malkin, his center of choice.
But let the record show that the cause of death of Crosby-Kessel wasn't so much about either of those players.
They certainly made magic together last week against these same Islanders, combining for seven points between the two of them. Crosby and Kessel also did some good things Saturday night in Ottawa and even through the first two periods of Monday's game at NYCB Live, nee the Nassau Coliseum.
However, if the dynamic duo wasn't scoring in droves their marriage was bound to be shorter than that of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.
Brassard certainly knows about not scoring in droves or, for that matter, scoring at all. Before Monday's 2-1 shootout win, the 31-year-old had just three goals this season, one of them in the last nine games.
But then a funny thing happened. Once he was paired with Crosby and Guentzel, Brassard skated like a man on a mission. Maybe it was the playoff-like atmosphere, maybe it was atoning for his previous turnover (though he made another error in overtime), or just maybe it was the idea of playing in a top-six role that rejuvenated "Big Game Brass."
"I thought it gave him some juice," is how Mike Sullivan explained it.
The coach said that before the game he and his staff had constructed a "Plan B" if they weren't liking what they were seeing from their line combinations.
Obviously, they didn't like what they were seeing after the Penguins were held to one goal against the block-happy Senators and appeared to be in jeopardy of being shutout for just the second time this season by the Islanders' Robin Lehner.
Well, Plan B worked.
At 12:29 of the third period, Brassard tied the game at 1-1 on this goal:
The play started with Crosby and Guentzel on a 2-on-2 rush. Carrying the puck into the zone, Guentzel crossed paths with Crosby, then feeding a pass to a streaking Crosby at the right circle. Taking the puck from across his body, the captain swung further wide to the right and fired a no-angle shot on Lehner. However, Crosby was able to collect his own rebound and passed it in front to Brassard, who had been trailing on the play. But Lehner stopped Brassard's initial shot.
As egregious as Brassard's turnover that led to Anthony Beauvillier's first-period goal was, the clearing attempt by Scott Mayfield on Brassard's rebound may have been somehow worse. Mayfield backhanded a puck that hit off Guentzel's right shin pad and squirted to Brassard, who was stationed at the right side of the net.
From nearly behind the goal line, Brassard chipped in a shot that floated into the cage.
It was exactly the kind of greasy goal that the Penguins had been hoping to see a lot more of when they acquired Brassard last February from the Senators at the trade deadline.
Of course, that was when they thought they were getting a third-line center who was going to be the missing piece in what they hoped would be a third straight Stanley Cup.
That didn't happen last spring, nor has that shown any signs of materializing this season.
His most productive game this season came Oct. 25 against the Flames when he picked up three assists on four shots while playing, you guessed it, the left wing.
Perhaps due to his shoulder surgery in the summer of 2017 or his subsequent groin injuries with the Penguins, Brassard simply hasn't been the player he was with the Rangers or even Senators.
At 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, he's not built like, nor does he have the game to play center in a bottom-six role. He's getting 44.1 percent offensive zone starts after getting as much as 66.7 with the Rangers in 2013-14. He might play a 200-foot game but the offensive zone is his clear preference.
"He's such a gifted player," Sullivan said. "He's playing a different role than all the teams he's played on. I'm trying to find more ways to keep him involved and maximize what he bring to this team because he's a unique player."
He might be a unique player but if the Penguins want to maximize -- or salvage -- what's left of likely his last season here, they have to play Brassard on the wing.
Would he ask Sullivan to be moved full-time?
"I don't ask him anything," Brassard said. "I just go wherever he tells me to go."
But to force him into a role he's incapable of playing is wasting their time and his.
