Sullivan: 'Rewarding experience' to watch Rust evolve over 400 games

When Bryan Rust takes the ice Tuesday evening against the Panthers at PPG Paints Arena, it will mark his 400th NHL game.

Rust was asked after Monday's practice what he remembers of his first NHL game, way back on Dec. 13, 2014 in Columbus. It was a 4-3 shootout loss for the Penguins, with Rust playing on a fourth line that also included Craig Adams and Andrew Ebbett. 

Rust played just nine shifts that night, recording no points in jut 6:02 of ice time.

"I didn't play very much," he recalled. "I think I got four-minute penalty. Tried to get a fight to try to get that five minute major, couldn't quite get it. But it was fun. It's a game that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life."

Rust will become the 32nd player to play 400 games with the Penguins, and the 19th player to play his first 400 games with the Penguins. It's fair to say that he's grown quite a bit from the fouth-liner who spent six minutes alongside Adams and Ebbett.

Of the 19 players who played their first 400 NHL games with the Penguins, Rust's career point total of 255 (118 goals, 137 assists) entering tonight's game ranks seventh through a player's first 400 games, trailing just Mario Lemieux (774), Sidney Crosby (554), Evgeni Malkin (485), Jaromir Jagr (473), Kevin Stevens (469) and Greg Malone (297).

Mike Sullivan has been Rust's head coach for 380 of those 399 games -- Rust's 14 games in the 2014-15 season and first five games of the 2015-16 season were under Mike Johnston. 

With a smile on his face, Sullivan said that it's "amazing where the time goes, that he's played that many games in this league."

He's enjoyed being able to witness the growth from Rust not only as a player, but also as a person over the years.

"He's really turned himself into a really good player in this league," Sullivan said of Rust. "I think his on-ice play speaks for itself, and what he's accomplished in the time that he's been here. It's been a rewarding experience to watch him. I just think he's a great person. He's a really driven athlete, he works extremely hard at his game. He's a great teammate off the ice, and I think he's evolved in that capacity as well."

Time has flown by for Rust as well.

"Every time you hit a milestone like this, you just look back and it's gone by pretty quick," Rust said. "But it's been a fun ride and here's hoping there's a lot more coming."

MORE FROM THE SKATE

• Tristan Jarry will start in net.

• It was an optional skate. Participants were Casey DeSmith, Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Blueger, Brian Boyle, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Mark Friedman, Mike Matheson (non-contact), Marcus Pettersson, P.O Joseph, Chad Ruhwedel

• Blueger, who is expected to be a game-time decision tonight, still wore his full face shield in the skate.

• Matheson, who is week-to-week with an undisclosed upper-body injury, skated for about half an hour with Ty Hennes prior to the skate. From watching him shoot and handle the puck, it's not obvious what the injury may be or how it could be affecting him.

• Sullivan's often dismissed the importance of the hit statistic for a number of reasons, with the biggest reason being that the off-ice officials who track those stats in each building have a lot of variance, and another reason being that in order to make a hit, you can't have the puck, so a high hit total might be an indication of low possession. Asked about the hit statistic again on Tuesday, he made those same points.

"I don't have a lot of faith in who's tracking that those numbers," he said. "Hits is a such a subjective number depending on what building you go to. Some guys think incidental contact is a body check. Other buildings are the opposite. It's hard to trust that statistic because there's so much subjectivity associated with it. So we don't hold a lot of credence in it. ... It's always an interesting conversation because sometimes you guys point to a team getting out hit or whatever that may be. And my initial thought, every time I read that is that if somebody's making an awful lot of body checks, they probably don't have the puck. So there's a fine line there."