A couple months ago -- heck, no, a couple days ago -- Evan Rodrigues would never peel off the blinders, never think a second thought. He'd approach the attacking blue line with a blank slate. And upon arrival, he'd dutifully dump the puck deep, he'd pin his ears back, and he'd pursue it.
In his mind, in this instance, he's a fourth-liner. And this is what fourth-liners do.
Fast-forward now to this actual Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, site of Game 3 of the Penguins-Rangers first-round Stanley Cup playoff series, and check out Rodrigues' place on the line chart:
PENGUINS
OK, next, check out the freeze-frame below of this fourth-liner approaching the New York blue line on a routine three-on-three that the Rangers appear to have under wraps, a man eyeballing each man:
TNT
A big nothing-burger. Not even a squirt of ketchup.
Fine, but watch Rodrigues make his very own version of the Pittsburgh left, one that'd play a pivotal role in the Penguins' 7-4 victory, bringing a two-goal lead in the opening period and, possibly more important, raising both the roof and expectations inside the place:
That violent cut to the left is only everything. All three of those New York skaters -- Mika Zibanejad, Jacob Trouba and K'Andre Miller -- are thrown out of whack with it. To an embarrassing extent, in Zibanejad's case. And even though Rodrigues can't connect on his pass down low to Jeff Carter, who'd smartly capitalized on the Rangers' confusion by slipping behind them, the ricochet off the end boards comes right out to Rodrigues, who ... man, he really takes his time and places that finish, huh?
Anyone remember that guy?
Fifteen goals through 37 games?
Maybe the NHL's breakout story of the winter?
Had our whole city spooked that he might be lost via free agency?
Yeah, that, my friends, was the first-half Rodrigues resurrected, trademark toe-drag to the inside and all. As I'd later confirm with the man himself:
"Yeah, definitely," he'd reply when I asked if that cut, a slice of his game we'd seen often through mid-January, could be a sign of his confidence -- a term he'd cite repeatedly through that first-half tear -- coming back. "You know, I saw two guys driving the net, so I figured it would pull their D back, and then it was kind of going to be one up top."
Meaning Carter.
"I saw the lane, and I tried to take Carts on a short-side tip, then just kind of followed it up. Saw an open net. I just kind of put it there. And definitely, it's definitely, definitely a big one."
For him, absolutely: Because after those 15 goals in 37 games, he'd go on to get just four in the final 45. Then barely a sniff in the first two playoff games. Then bumped, for this Game 3, to the fourth line, a step away from being a healthy scratch. And finally, he'd account for half of the goals that chased a lockdown Vezina Trophy winner, Igor Shesterkin.
Here's the other one, prettier still:
Catch that grip-and-rip approach? After the visible setup as Brian Boyle's trigger-man following the latter's steal? And that pinpoint laser? And hey, how about that super-charged celebration, egging on an already electric capacity crowd of 18,385 to show him some love.
That's confidence.
And it appears to be spreading.
____________________
This was a bit nerve-wracking to write.
It was my Game 2 column from Madison Square Garden the other night, and it was entitled, 'For all the Penguins' misfortune, momentum might be theirs.' And even if I felt sturdy atop that sentiment, based on data, what I was watching on the rink, and other observations made off the ice, the piece was still written off a three-goal loss ... right after a second goaltender had fallen.
But along came Game 3, and the Penguins erupted for a 4-1 first-period lead, basically carrying that gradually building momentum I'd described from the Garden into something tangible. And even after dragging through their "worst period" in the second of this one to allow for a 4-4 tie, per Sullivan, they snapped right back into form in the third to lead into Danton Heinen's winner with 8:58 left.
And now, to update the data list I'd compiled for the previous column, the Penguins now lead in:
• Wins: 2-1
• Goals: 13-12
• Shots: 124-108
• Shot attempts: 250-215
• Scoring chances: 145-108
• High-danger chances: 71-40
• Faceoffs: 118-98
That's stayed steady, even through the loss. All of the above.
And that can't occur without individual performance pouring into the collective, a thought that prompted me to ask Sullivan if his team's gaining confidence through this series.
"I think our team has already had a quiet confidence about it," he began his reply. "You know, I think our guys believe we can win. I really do. And if we play the game a certain way, and we have the discipline to stay the course through 60 minutes, we believe we can play with any team in the league. And we understand that we're playing against a real good opponent."
He nodded toward the visitors' locker room.
"They've got good players, they're a proud team, they're well coached and, you know, it's going to be a hard fought battle. That's today's NHL. But we believe we have a certain confidence inside our dressing room that we can compete against anybody when we play the game a certain way."
That's been proven correct over eight months now, but for a few lapses. The system's the system.
What's gone missing, though, has been the individual component. Some players, notably the bottom-six forwards and second-line wingers, became passengers for long spells. It seldom involved a lack of effort but, rather, a lack of confidence up and down that portion of the roster: Rodrigues and Kasperi Kapanen went a month each without scoring. Brock McGinn went weeks. Heinen, too. Teddy Blueger had a broken jaw, then looked lost without Zach Aston-Reese. Poor Jason Zucker couldn't stay on the ice at all.
So, even as Sidney Crosby's line excelled in Games 1 and 2, and Evgeni Malkin finished the triple-overtime thriller, as Sullivan worded it after this game, "One line can't do all the scoring every night."
Nope.
Which is why it had to be uplifting for the Penguins, within the first two minutes, to witness McGinn somehow squeezing this one by Shesterkin:
To boot, the sequence was set up by a shot-out-of-a-cannon forecheck from Zucker, who I felt provided the team's primary jolt upon rejoining the team from whatever his latest injury was. He never stopped churning all night.
And it might've been more uplifting to see Carter, of all people, undo a 1-1 tie six minutes later on this smart point attempt from Rodrigues:
I don't need to share evidence of how far Carter's fallen since mid-January, if only because the first two games of this series served as an excruciating reminder.
And it'd be Heinen getting the biggie ...
... one that was richly deserved after he'd been, at least from my Garden vantage point in Games 1 and 2, maybe his team's coolest performer. Including the opening few minutes of Game 1, when all about him were losing their heads.
"I'm just trying to take it all in, stay in the moment and have as much fun as I can out there," he'd say afterward.
Blueger still isn't scoring -- one goal in his past 31 games -- but was a central figure in two critical penalty-kills early in the third period with the score 4-4, and he did win the wacky headgear in the locker room:
No one appreciates the penalty kill quite like your goalie 💛 pic.twitter.com/MeKfWw35Id
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 8, 2022
And apparently was rendered speechless.
Who'd I forget? Anyone?
Oh, right: Kapanen's been just as good or better than any in this category, registering 14 shots on the Rangers through three games, plus an assist on Malkin's overtime goal. But he's yet to score, despite nine of those shots having been authoritative and well-placed. It's not a stretch to suggest it's the most direct, most dynamic hockey he's put together in a Pittsburgh sweater.
That's the momentum I'd been seeing. And still am. It's the first sighting of the first-half Penguins (secondary guys rising up) and second-half Penguins (stars being healthy and doing what they do) blissfully colliding.
____________________
All that's left to discuss on this momentum/confidence front, I suppose, is the elephant-herd-in-the-living-room matter of Shesterkin vs. Louis Domingue.
It's a spectacular story, from the Pittsburgh perspective, one that's better every time the man opens his mouth, as the organization's third-string goaltender delightfully did again after stopping 32 of 36 shots in his PPG Paints Arena debut, sharing, among other gems: "You know, from the moment I brought my net outside in the street and put my rollerblades on and played outside and had the cars go around my net, this is the film that was playing in my head."
No doubt highlighted by this beauty on Artemi Panarin during those kills:
"Give Louis Domingue credit," New York's coach, Gerard Gallant, would say. "That was a big part of the game."
"I tried to just put my body in front of it as kind of a wholesale moment, kind of just get the frame in front of it," Domingue would say. "It was a huge moment for my confidence, that's for sure."
It was ... unorthodox. That was the case for much of Domingue's work. But he got it done, and he won.
Also, there was another reference to confidence.
I can't claim to know or even guess what, if anything, might've gone awry with Shesterkin. None of the Penguins' four goals on 15 shots in the first period, before Gallant would pull him in favor of Alexandar Georgiev could be considered a crime against the profession. Both men also got precious little support from a defense corps that's now illustrating why it'd been a weakness most of the season. And maybe, even though Georgiev acquitted himself well by stopping 19 of 20 shots, Gallant would've done better by putting Shesterkin right back between the pipes rather than risk messing with his premier player's ... confidence.
"Igor has been outstanding," Gallant would say as probably damage control. "Really, you look at it right now, and he's played 10 periods in the last 4 1/2 days, whatever it is. So I thought it was a good time to jumpstart things."
Better hurry. This might be the only matchup anyone's still fearing around here.
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Sidney Crosby's backhander is stuffed by the Rangers' Alexandar Georgiev.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Danton Heinen, Penguins LW
2. Evan Rodrigues, Penguins RW
3. Jeff Carter, Penguins C
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Brian Dumoulin, defenseman, is out with a lower-body injury. His status is day-to-day. He didn't participate in the team's optional morning skate Saturday.
• Tristan Jarry, goaltender, is out with a broken bone in his foot. His status is day-to-day. He resumed skating on his own Saturday, before the optional.
• Rickard Rakell, forward, is out with a head injury. His status is day-to-day. He's been skating the past two days.
• Casey DeSmith, goaltender, is done for the season after having core muscle surgery Friday.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Kapanen
Zucker-Carter-McGinn
Boyle-Blueger-Rodrigues
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel
And for Gallant's Rangers:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Vatrano
Panarin-Strome-Copp
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Hunt-Rooney-Reaves
Braun-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Nemeth-Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
A day off, at last. No practice. No nothing for the athletes, but an 11 a.m. conference call between Sullivan and reporters. Game 4 faces off Monday, 7:10 p.m., at PPG Paints Arena.
THE CONTENT
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