Penguins' Chad Ruhwedel provides steady presence on defense

Thanks in no small part to goaltender Tristan Jarry’s recent efforts, the Pittsburgh Penguins have allowed only 85 goals in 31 games.

But don’t ignore the defensemen’s contributions.

Only two Eastern Conference teams, the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins, have surrendered fewer goals this season, and the Penguins have won three of their past four games.

Maybe, as defenseman Marcus Pettersson suggested, it’s nothing more than simple physics and logic.

“Pass it,” he said of the puck.

“Tanger (Kris Letang) and Schultzie (Justin Schultz) are the only two (defensemen) who are good enough to skate it up. That speeds up the game. You know, you can’t travel faster than the puck. That’s physically impossible.”

Passing — when done right — also keeps the puck out of danger.

“We don’t want the puck on our defensemen’s sticks very long in the neutral zone,” Pettersson said. “Feed the forwards, because we have such a skilled forward group.”

Which is the way coach Mike Sullivan wants to see his team play, and few defensemen follow the script closer than Pettersson’s defense partner, Chad Ruhwedel.

When he’s on the ice.

The road to the NHL has not been easy for Ruhwedel.

He grew up in San Diego and had to travel coast to coast to find ice.

“When I was younger, it was a lot harder than it is now,” he said of finding ice time in Southern California. “There are a lot of rinks by my old house, and the only thing is there are a lot of people, too.

“So there’s not a lot of availability. A lot of time it was early in the morning or later at night.”

Ruhwedel’s parents had Chad and his sister skating at a young age. She chose figure skating. Chad picked hockey.

Ruhwedel often traveled north of Los Angeles and even into the Midwest and East Coast to find good competition.

Before he joined the Buffalo Sabres in 2012, he was on teams in Los Angeles, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Lowell, Mass. Finally, he signed with the Penguins in 2016.

This season, he has played in only eight games, but he recorded his only goal of the season and one of his two assists Saturday in a 5-3 victory in Detroit.

If the lack of ice time bothers him, he’s not showing it.

“Still trying to play my game, play it simple and just try to help the team win,” he said. “Just playing within myself, making good, crisp passes, getting out of the D-zone and trying to help the offense when we get the chance.

“(Inactivity) can be (difficult), but you try to not let it affect you, so when you do get in, you play well.”

Sullivan said Ruhwedel “defends with his mobility and his stick, and he’s competitive.”

“Chad’s at his best when he keeps the game simple. He defends hard. He makes outlet passes for us. He gets the puck through from the offensive blue line.”

Pettersson likes it when he’s paired with Ruhwedel.

“You always know where he is,” Pettersson said. “He’s reliable. He plays hard, so it’s kind of easy to read off him and work together with him.”

Defensemen often are linked with different partners, but Pettersson said the Penguins system makes it easy to adapt.

“Sometimes, it can be (difficult),” he said, “but we have great structure to lean back on, and I think that helps us. You can always lean back on the structure and the system.

“Everybody plays the same way, so we’re easy to read off each other and we’re predictable.

“If you have a new guy, just focus on quick ups and get the puck up north quick.”

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