The Pittsburgh Penguins offered a lot of descriptions of their new forward Jason Zucker after acquiring him in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Monday.

“Fast” was the most common one.

“Honest” could be another.

After making his debut with the team in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena, the 28-year-old did not try to sugarcoat things.

“I don’t think I played very well tonight,” Zucker said. “I thought my hands were terrible. I mishandled pretty much every puck I touched. I just tried to skate and tried to create some opportunities. I think I’ll be better next game.”

Zucker wasn’t as awful as he suggested. But little he offered Tuesday suggested his No. 16 will be hanging from the rafters one day.

Logging 15 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time on 20 shifts, he recorded five shots, one short of his season-high, on five attempts.

It might be fair to describe his first game with the Penguins as somewhat promising but mostly inert.

His speed was evident to the naked eye. During a four-on-four sequence at 5:43 of the second period, a strong forecheck by Zucker led to a turnover by Lightning goaltender Andre Vasilevskiy behind the net and eventually a slap shot from the point by defenseman Marcus Pettersson that Vasilevskiy rejected.

“He’s got a ton of speed. He creates a lot of loose pucks,” said Sidney Crosby, who centered the top line with Zucker on the left wing most of the game. “I thought he got more and more comfortable as the game went on. That’s pretty typical. The more he gets comfortable, the better he’s going to be.”

Regardless, his presence offered a charge, even if was just emotional, to a group of incumbent players who have weathered injuries to star players all season long.

“It’s huge,” defenseman Kris Letang said. “He’s one of the guys who was out there (as a trade target). Our management made a big push to get him. He’s a really good player. It’s good to have him on our side for a few years.”

“He just adds that much more firepower to our team, and he just makes us that much more dangerous,” said forward Bryan Rust, who played with Zucker with the United States National Team Development Program when they were teenagers. “Anytime you can add a guy like that, it definitely puts other teams on their toes a little bit.”

The Penguins had a foothold on this game early when they scored a power-play goal 11:31 into regulation. A one-timer by Crosby from the right circle was rejected by Vasilevskiy’s blocker. The rebound jumped to the left circle, where Malkin was able to lean down and fire the puck past a sprawling Vasilevskiy for his 18th goal.

Tampa Bay got its own power-play score at 3:59 of the second period when defenseman Mikhail Sergachev lofted a stunningly precise wrister from the center point past five bodies, including the blocker of Matt Murray, for his ninth goal.

After a third period that turned into something of a staring contest between Murray, who finished with 36 saves, and Vasilevskiy, who made 35 saves, a goal by Lightning forward Yanni Gourde at 2:45 of overtime secured victory.

“That’s a good team,” Murray said. “So you know they’re going to get their chances. We’re also a good team. So we got our chances. That game could have gone either way. It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t get it done there in overtime.”

Zucker is certainly eager to see what he can do once he gets a little more experience in a Penguins jersey.

“It was very weird,” Zucker said of putting on an NHL uniform other than the Wild’s for the first time in his nine-year career. “I was looking at my socks and everything getting dressed. It was very bizarre. But you know what? It was awesome. This is such an amazing franchise. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things prior to being here about the entire organization.

“It’s surreal being a part of it.”

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