Taking a quick look at the box score from the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night and it would indicate an absolutely monster game from forward Bryan Rust. In a lot
of ways, it was. He finished with three points, including two assists and the game-winning goal in the third period, capitalizing on the power play and finishing a sensational cross-ice pass from Evgeni Malkin.
That goal is, to this point, one of the biggest goals of the Penguins’ season. It not only put them ahead and went in the books as the game-winning goal, it came after the Penguins had blown a 3-0 lead for the second game in a row.
They simply could not lose that game. They needed somebody to give them the next goal.
If they would have lost that game, after those first 30 minutes, the same way they had lost their previous game in Toronto after a nearly flawless 40 minutes, it would have been brutal for everybody. The locker room. Fans trying to convince themselves they should buy into this team. Everybody. The vibes would have been miserable.
As he has done so many times in his career, Rust was there in a big moment to score the big goal. It’s what he does, and it’s a big reason why he is such an important part of this era of Penguins hockey. He may not be on the Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Kris Letang level, but he is absolutely on that next tier right below them.
He is a major, major part of those 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup banners being in the rafters, and big goals in big moments are as much of his legacy as his all-around play and the way he worked his way up through the farm system and turned himself into a core piece.
If you look at Rust’s stat line for the season, he also looks like a player that has been a huge part of their early season success, and perhaps even just as ageless as their other top stars.
And to a point, he has been.
He has 14 points in 13 games, has at least point in seven of his past eight games and multiple points in three of them (including two three-point games).
It is all very good. Very productive. Very important.
It seems that way on the stat sheet.
But there also seems to be a significant gap between the production you are seeing on the stat sheet, and what you are actually watching on the ice with him. Perhaps more than any other player on the roster right now.
Everything seems to be happening with him in slow motion. Handling the puck seems to be a problem at times. He just looks … slower.
The biggest concern, however, is what the Penguins are getting from him defensively. This also applies to that top line as a whole, as they are getting absolutely torched defensively almost every single night. They are getting beat in terms of goals against, they are getting beat (badly) in terms of scoring chances.
The Crosby-Rust duo, as great as they have still been offensively, are getting outscored (9-10) during 5-on-5 play. That duo is giving up 3.60 expected goals per 60 minutes, and 13.8 high-danger chances. Just for perspective on that, the worst teams in the NHL this season defensively are giving up 3.25 expected goals per 60 minutes and 14.9 high-danger chances.
When that duo is on the ice, the Penguins are defending like the worst team in hockey.
When they are not on the ice, the Penguins’ defensive performance improves significantly (2.68 expected goals against and 11.8 high-danger chances).
Over the past three games they’ve been outscored by a 5-0 margin during 5-on-5 play.
Their individual defensive metrics also place them near the bottom of the league for the season as a whole.
The offense is important. But they need more from that line defensively.
Defensive play has been a huge issue for the Penguins in recent years, and it was the biggest potential issue with this roster coming into this season and one of the main reasons they figured to be in the Gavin McKenna lottery. A lot of that concern was centered around the state of the blue line (and still is) given the ages of Letang and Erik Karlsson, as well as the state of the left-side of the defense and its makeshift build. But the defensive play of some of the forward lines is also a concern. The first line, great as they are offensively, might be the biggest concern defensively. Especially in the context of back-to-back blown three-goal leads, and Crosby being on the ice for five of the seven goals and Rust being on the ice for four of them.
