Penguins’ Mike Sullivan unconcerned with Jared McCann’s scoring slump
In his first 76 games after being acquired by the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade, Jared McCann had 25 goals.
He has zero, though, in the 13 games since.
McCann hasn’t scored in more than a month since the final of a three-game goal streak Jan. 14 against Minnesota. But even with just four assists and an unsightly minus-9 rating to show for his past five weeks, McCann’s slump isn’t concerning to Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.
“Jared is getting a lot of scoring chances; it’s not like he’s not getting opportunities,” Sullivan said after practice Friday. “You can’t always control if it gets into the net or not. I just think he’s got to keep his game simple, and he’s got to play the right way.
“Sometimes, I think, when goal scorers don’t score for a few games, there’s a tendency to focus on scoring goals, and Jared and I spoke yesterday morning and that was part of the conversation was: take the focus off of scoring, just play the right way, you are going to get chances, keep shooting the puck, the puck will go in the net for you. You’ve just got to trust the process.”
Sullivan downplayed McCann’s bouncing around the lineup for his struggles. Over the past five weeks, McCann has at times played on what is generally considered the first, second and third lines, and at center or either wing.
In his past 13 games, McCann has just two even-strength points and 35 shots on goal (2.7 per game).
“Based on my experience of watching players go through some of the ups and downs when the puck doesn’t go in the net for them is that part of the solution is to take the focus off of it and just play the game the right way and make good decisions and keep your game simple,” Sullivan said. “And when you can put the puck on the net, shoot it. And we believe the puck will go in for them.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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