Hockey's a funny sport, isn't it?
In a matter of days -- or even shifts, in some cases -- it can go from feeling like the sky is falling, to then having everything you touch turn to gold.
The latter is the case for Bryan Rust right now, who has two goals and six points over his last two games after posting two points in his previous 14 games.
It's not his second-period goal in the Penguins' 4-1 victory over the Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday that we'll focus on here, though. Instead, we're looking at hard evidence beyond the numbers that Rust is really starting to find his groove.
You know that authoritative, on-your-toes manner in which Rust typically carries the puck when he's at the top of his game? Yeah, he's got it going right now:
Uh, fully respecting the big-time goals he scored in the Penguins' back-to-back Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017, that would have skyrocketed to the top of his career highlight-reel for such utterly filthy maneuvers on his way to the net had he been able to finish.
"I saw I was up against a forward there, which doesn’t happen too often, and I was able to," Rust told me after the game, then pausing for a moment. "I don’t know, that doesn’t happen too often, but I was able to make a nice move and get a nice chance there."
That's not exactly a valiant effort from Patrik Laine in transition defense -- far from it. And Rust exploited him.
The actual dangle to get around Laine was great, and we'll get to it, but there's plenty more here to love that played a part in Rust waltzing his way right to the front of the net.
The second he gained possession, Rust crossed over to the outside before crossing back to the middle as he gained the blue line. This allowed him to enter the zone at an angle, rather than a much-easier-to-defend straight-ahead line. Defenders don't like it when they have to defend diagonally. That probably holds true a million times over when it's Laine.
Taking the middle of the ice, Rust protected the puck by holding it out to the side in his hip pocket and away from Laine. At the same time, doing so made a pass to Evgeni Malkin for a one-timer a legitimate possibility.
But as soon as Laine flailed his stick out, Rust quickly slipped the puck through Laine's triangle (the area between the toe caps of his skates and his outreached stick) and sent him to the spin cycle, toasting him to the outside.
From there, a double backhand-forehand move was all that was needed to put Elvis Merzlikins down for the count, the shot was just simply off the mark.
Regardless of the puck going in, that's the sign -- on top of the points -- that Rust has put his slump in the rearview mirror.
