ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The first season of Kris Letang's six-year, $36.6 million contract has hardly gone the way he had hoped.
Right out of the gates, Letang's first two games of the season were two utterly dominant individual performances at both ends of the ice. It's not hyperbole to suggest those were two of the best games he had played in quite some time, and that's really saying something considering he was coming off a very strong 2021-22 season.
After those first two games, though, Letang's impact began slipping. His defensive work was often porous and, while his offense didn't dry up entirely, it wasn't reaching the level the Penguins realistically needed from him as the team's No. 1 defenseman.
Then, in late November, it was announced that Letang suffered a second stroke. Luckily, the stroke was much less severe than the first, and Letang returned to the ice with his teammates for practice just 10 days after it occurred. He was back in the lineup just several days later.
Letang went on to play in eight games throughout December before suffering a lower-body injury on Dec. 28. While recovering from the injury, Letang's father, Claude Fouquet, passed away at age 77.
It was an absolutely hellish stretch for Letang, but in four games since returning to the lineup from his latest injury, things appear to be picking up for him on and off the ice.
"I feel pretty good," Letang would tell me Thursday afternoon following practice here at the Honda Center. "I think there’s areas to improve. Timing is always the thing I’m looking for when I come back from injuries, and sometimes four games is not enough. It takes a little bit more. Overall, body-wise, conditioning-wise, I feel pretty good."
Letang burst back onto the scene with four points, including the overtime-winning goal, in his first game back against the Panthers on Jan. 24. Three games later, he scored another thrilling overtime goal to power the Penguins to victory over the Avalanche.
"He missed a fair amount of time there," Mike Sullivan said. "A player like Tanger, I think the more he plays, the better he gets. His timing, his conditioning, all of those things. His fitness level is always off the charts, but it’s hard to simulate game intensity. The only way to get that is through playing. With each game that he’s playing, I think his timing’s better, his execution’s better, his decision-making is better, and his conditioning. And I think they’re related. When Tanger’s at the top of his conditioning level, which is a high bar, I think it sets him up for success."
Regardless of his production since returning (three goals, two assists in four games), Letang seems to have recaptured some of the mojo he enjoyed in the first two games of the season. His long-time defense partner, Brian Dumoulin, thinks so, too.
"He's been really good," Dumoulin said. "He's been really fun to play with, he's been talking a lot. He wants the puck and he's got a lot of good energy. You can see it, he's having a lot of fun."
I won't sit here and tell you Letang's performance has been anything close to perfect in these last four games, but I'm also not going to ignore just how much more impactful he was compared to late October and a good chunk of November. It's almost funny to think about how much better he could have been in those games if his timing was where he wanted it to be.
"Like the distance between me and the players," Letang responded when I asked which areas of the game are affected the most by his timing being a bit off. "Sometimes you feel you don’t have enough time to make a play, and when you look back, you see that you had more time. Places I go on the rink, if I have enough time to make plays there, stuff like that."
What's stood out the most -- to me, at least -- is just how aggressive Letang has been offensively. He's always been an offense-first defenseman, but his playmaking in the offensive zone and willingness to shoot has been quite noticeable. That's by design.
"I haven’t been shooting a lot this year," Letang said. "Simplifying my game and shooting more pucks, creating offense that way, is something I’m looking for a little more."
Over the past four games, Letang has attempted a whopping 33 shots, 15 of which made it on target. That's an average of 3.75 shots on goal per game, considerably higher than his average of 1.96 shots per game in the first 29 games of the season. His current shooting rate isn't likely to hold up to this degree over time, but the signs are encouraging. The intent behind all of it is even more encouraging.
"I don’t know that that’s something that’s unique most recently," Sullivan said. "I think he always has that element to his game. He’s such an instinctive player. He’s rogue, sometimes. He’ll go off the grid, but that’s part of what makes him what he is. We don’t want to discourage that, because I think that’s what makes Tanger elite."
Going off the grid, especially for someone who logs as many minutes as Letang does, can stick out like a sore thumb when things don't go according to plan. But when things do go according to plan, like right now, it leads to some seriously strong results.
Letang's been on the ice for just under 88 minutes at 5-on-5 in the last four games. During that time, the Penguins have scored five goals (3.41 per hour). That figure isn't really buoyed much by luck or variance, either, as it's backed by an immensely strong rate of 3.22 expected goals per hour, per Evolving-Hockey. Just to frame that for you, there are only seven defensemen in the NHL who have been on the ice for a higher rate of expected goals this season (two of them are Marcus Pettersson and P.O Joseph).
"That’s where his partner is really important," Sullivan continued, "when he’s active offensively and gets involved deep in the offensive zone, I think it makes us a more dangerous team, we just have to do it judiciously so that we’re not playing a high-risk game where we’re giving our opponents every bit as good of opportunities as we get. We don’t want to be a team that trades chance for chance, it’s not a recipe for success. But I think calculated activation with Tanger is really important."
The next step for Letang -- like most of his teammates, really -- is bringing it consistently. As mentioned, his performance has been extremely encouraging over the last four games. But that's the thing: It's just four games.
Letang's "rogue" playing style will continue to teeter on the edge, but like Sullivan said, that's what makes him Letang. A solid foundation is in place for after this recent stretch. Now, it's time to build.
