Jason Zucker scores twice, leads Penguins past Canadiens
Jason Zucker is fully aware of the immense expectations foisted upon him.
After all, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded high-end future assets to acquire his services Monday.
And, as has been the case for any scoring winger the Penguins have brought in to play with franchise center Sidney Crosby — from Marian Hossa to Zucker — there isn’t much of a grace period to get adjusted.
Zucker’s Penguins debut Tuesday saw him record five shots but no goals.
Surely, there was more the former 30-goal scorer had to offer.
“Absolutely,” Zucker said Thursday. “I think it will be a lot better to have a full game day and go through a new normal routine.”
Zucker looked pretty sharp for “normal” Friday as he scored two goals, including the winner, and led the Penguins to a 4-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at PPG Paints Arena.
Having traveled to Pittsburgh on the day of Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Zucker looked more at ease with his new surroundings Friday.
“It’s one more day with these guys, one more day preparing for a game,” Zucker said after Friday’s game. “It was great to have that practice, trying to learn the system a little bit more. Just trying to learn these guys and the way they play hockey.”
His new coach seemed pretty impressed with how he plays hockey with the benefit of further acclimation.
“His speed was more noticeable tonight,” Mike Sullivan said. “You could see how good he is on the transition when the puck changes from defense to offense. His ability to create separation to jump into windows of opportunity, and we’ve got some guys that can get him the puck. I thought that was much more evident tonight.
”You could see his ability to finish. He had two real good goals tonight.”
The Penguins got some help from their power play, which is starting to show signs of consistency. Defenseman Kris Letang’s 13th goal of the season at 7 minutes, 25 seconds of the second period gave the Penguins a power-play goal for the third consecutive game.
At 18:00 of the second, Zucker and Crosby connected for the first time. Zipping up the left wing, Crosby created a two-on-two rush against Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot and Joel Armia. Drawing them in, Crosby fed a pass to the vacant right circle, where Zucker leaned down and snapped a shot off of goaltender Carey Price’s glove and into the cage for his 15th goal.
“That was an unbelievable pass,” said a gobsmacked Zucker. “That pass was incredible. I’m just glad that I touched it.”
Montreal got on the scoreboard 54 seconds later thanks to a power-play goal by forward Tomas Tatar, his 20th of the season.
It took Zucker 36 seconds to restore a two-goal lead for his new team.
From the right point, Crosby snapped a pass to defenseman Marcus Pettersson in the left circle. Reaching around a poke check by Jeff Petry, Pettersson slid the puck to the front of the crease. Battling through a check from Canadiens defenseman Brett Kulak, Zucker chopped the puck over Price’s hand.
Complementing the skills of Crosby is one thing. But Pettersson?
“I’m going to start giving (Pettersson) the puck more often,” Zucker quipped.
While Zucker’s first goal was the deciding score, Sullivan suggested his second goal was perhaps more vital to the outcome.
”We get scored against,” Sullivan said. “We come out shortly thereafter and score the way that we did gives our bench a huge boost. Those types of moments go a long way to controlling momentum.
“That particular goal, I think, was an important one for us.”
Forward Zach Aston-Reese scored his sixth goal at 18:16 of the third on an empty net to secure victory. Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry made 34 saves to get his 19th victory of the season.
And Zucker’s first with the Penguins.
“He just looked comfortable out there,” Crosby said. “Today probably felt like more of a regular game day for him. It’s the same game. You just need to go out there and feel that.
“He got that first (game) under his belt, but tonight, he was just flying. He created a lot. Got a couple of big goals for us.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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