Penguins defenseman Kris Letang's record-setting game was 'pretty cool'

Alex Letang didn’t necessarily get to see his father, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, make history on Wednesday night.

But he certainly had quite a reaction Thursday morning.

“He goes to bed before the end of the game,” Kris Letang said of his adolescent son. “The first thing he did, he woke up at 6 (a.m.) and he came in our room (saying) ‘Oh my God!’

“He was pretty thrilled about it.”

There was plenty of reason for jubilation in the Letang household or any other corner of the Earth with a rooting interest in the Penguins on Wednesday.

During a 7-0 road win against the New York Islanders, Letang set or tied a handful of records by recording six assists.

Most notably, he set an NHL record by registering five assists in the second period alone. No defenseman in the history of the NHL — founded in 1917 — had ever done that in a single period.

He also set a new mark by tallying all six of his assists in a span of 19:33. The previous record for fastest six assists — what a sequence of words — was 30:17 by someone named Wayne Gretzky who collected a half-dozen helpers in 30:17 on Feb. 15, 1980.

He also tied the league record for assists in a game by a defenseman and the franchise record for assists in a contest regardless of position.

“It’s just cool, whether you play with someone for a long time or just to witness that,” said Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, no stranger to the league’s and team’s record books. “There’s a lot of years that have gone in the NHL, over 100. For that to never to have been done and to be a part of that is pretty cool.”

Letang’s offensive exploits Wednesday came as he has taken on a somewhat different role this season.

That’s to say he is no longer the team’s de facto top defenseman, a station he has largely inhabited since the start of the 2010-11 season when Sergei Gonchar left as an unrestricted free agent.

Letang and Erik Karlsson, acquired in a blockbuster trade in August, largely have shared that designation, at least based on their overall ice time. Letang paces the team with 24:40 of average time on ice per contest, while Karlsson is a close second with 24:32.

The power play is where Letang has largely yielded to Karlsson. With Karlsson manning the point on the top unit, Letang has been relegated to the second unit for the bulk of the season.

Letang has seen a considerable change in his role on the penalty kill this season as he has clocked an average of 2:42 of short-handed ice time per contest. Last season, he was at 56 seconds per game.

The six-time All-Star pushed back on a suggestion that his style of game is more defensively oriented this season compared with previous campaigns but acknowledged his assignments are more defensively focused.

“It’s always been like that (being defense-first),” Letang said following a practice session Thursday in Cranberry. “I think for everybody it is. Is it more this year maybe because I have a role that is more based on defense this year more than other years? Maybe that’s why we see it like that.”

Anyone who viewed the scoresheet from Wednesday’s game saw Letang’s name quite a bit.

“It’s one of those nights where guys touch the puck and feel it,” Letang said. “You score some goals, you get confidence. You just want to bring the same desperation, same energy every night knowing that you’re confident.”

Note: Injured Penguins forward Bryan Rust skated before the team’s practice session. He has missed the past eight games due to an undisclosed injury. Currently designated to long-term injured reserve, Rust is not eligible to rejoin the active roster until Jan. 2.

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