WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Jason Zucker isn't just funny.
He's funny at being funny.
No more than a few minutes after the Penguins' 3-0 shutout of the Jets on this Saturday night at Canada Life Centre, one he helped decide with the icebreaking goal 53 seconds into the third period, I couldn't help but jab him and ask what Jaromir Jagr might've thought of it.
You know, the same Jagr who recently joked -- I think he was joking anyway, as it's always been hard to tell with him -- that Zucker needed to "work on your shot" and shoot "harder" than the goal in Buffalo that prompted Zucker to do the Jagr salute.
So, here's the goal:
And the hypothesized Jagr judging:
Hard enough?
"No," he returned without hesitation. "Not a chance. I was probably the weakest shot I've had all year."
Turning at least semi-serious, he added, "Sometimes, it's just about trying to get it off quick. That's what happened for me."
It's happened a lot. He's got five goals this season, and four, including the one Jagr critiqued, have been one-timers. Grip it and rip it. One purpose. No thought.
That said, there was a ton to like about the sequence beyond the shot itself, which only overpowered one of the planet's premier goaltenders, Connor Hellebuyck.
Watch Jeff Petry get it started:
"A lot of good offense starts with good defense," as Mike Sullivan would observe, in general, after this game. And this is a prime example. The Jets had mistimed a flip pass out of their zone, Petry stood tall in corralling it, immediately found Evgeni Malkin and Zucker up the right flank, and all the blue sweaters in that moving image above appear to be punch-drunk all of a sudden.
(Special shout-out here, by the way, to Sam Gagner -- he's No. 89, completely not giving a hoot -- for the most richly earned minus a forward could ever collect!)
Malkin, who was all over this rink all night, chipped to Zucker, got it right back, gave it right back and ... boom!
Or ... salute!
