Owen Pickering wasn't immediately sure whether or not the shot that beat Spencer Knight to open the scoring in Tuesday's 5-4 win over the Panthers was his goal. Michael Bunting was in front providing a screen, and Pickering couldn't tell whether Bunting tipped it in ... until Bunting pointed at him to let him know he just scored his first NHL goal:

"I blacked out," Pickering recalled with a grin. "It was pretty cool. It was sick. ... It's something you dream of since you were three."

Pickering isn't really being looked at to provide offense at this level. With a goal and an assist in six NHL games, he's already doubled his AHL point total of a single goal in 12 games. 

What has kept Pickering in the lineup to this point is how he's helped to stabilize the Penguins' third pairing defensively. The results with Pickering on the ice at five-on-five have been staggering, with these stats being per-60 rates to account for differences in ice time:

• Shot attempts against: 57.47 (second-best among Penguins defensemen)

• Unblocked shot attempts against: 41.65 (second-best among Penguins defensemen)

• High-danger attempts against: 10.83 (second-best among Penguins defensemen)

• Shots against: 30.82 (third-best among Penguins defensemen)

• Goals against: 1.67 (best among Penguins defensemen)

That's not a result of sheltering Pickering by giving his pairing offense-first assignments -- he sees the second-lowest rate offensive zone starts, edged out only by his partner Ryan Shea. He sees 13.33 defensive zone starts per 60 minutes at five-on-five, more than three entire starts more than the next guy. 

Defensemen generally take longer to develop and adjust to the pro game than forwards, and one might have assumed Pickering would have needed even longer, given that he's still filling out physically as he adjusts to his 6-foot-5 frame. But Pickering has adjusted not only to the pro game, but to the NHL, in no time.

"I was crazy nervous my first game," Pickering told me on Tuesday. "Obviously, you're still nervous every single game. But for me, it's just knowing that I can play my game at this level and get more and more confidence as every game passes by. The coaching staff and my teammates have been great to help me with that as well, just knowing what I need to do to stay comfortable and help the team win."

Pickering's teammates recognized his effort in this win, with Bunting selecting Pickering as the latest recipient of the team's MVP racing helmet:

Pickering still had his first NHL goal puck sitting in his stall postgame, and he has big plans for it: "I'll probably take it home and put it beside my first WHL fight puck, which was a big moment for me, by the way. I won that fight. Nothing crazy."