Penguins Take 5: Alex Nedeljkovic knows who deserves an assist for his goalie goal

The goal Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic scored during a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night, naturally, was unassisted.

He picked up a puck dumped in by Sabres forward Peyton Krebs and threw it the length of the ice for the 19th goalie goal in NHL history.

But if he could, Nedeljkovic would hand out an assist on the play.

To his dad, Butch.

“(Puckhandling has) been part of my game as long as I can remember,” Nedeljkovic told reporters in Buffalo. “It started from just conversations with my dad in the car, telling me, ‘Don’t just throw the puck around the boards. Every time you get it, try to make a smart play with it. Put it on guys’ tape. Don’t just do it. If you’re going to do it, at least try to do something with it.’”

Here are five takes on Nedeljkovic’s goal:

1. Fighting chance

Nedeljkovic also recorded an assist on Cody Glass’ second-period goal, so his teammates were joking after the game that he was only a fighting major shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick.

In stark contrast to previous eras of NHL hockey, the goal part of that feat has become much easier for goalies to obtain than the fight.

The last goalie fight in the NHL saw Edmonton’s Mike Smith and Calgary’s Cam Talbot square off Feb. 1, 2020. There have been four goalie goals in the NHL since then.

2. Scoring list

Though Nedeljkovic is quite a prolific scorer by goalie standards — lighting the lamp four times in his pro career (counting two AHL and one ECHL goals) and recording four NHL assists — he’s still miles away from the Penguins all-time goaltender scoring leader.

That’s Tom Barrasso, who had 31 assists in black and gold, outpacing second-place Marc-Andre Fleury (14 assists) and Tristan Jarry (11 assists).

3. Zero sum game

While Nedeljkovic isn’t likely to catch Barrasso in career points, on Friday night, he passed several memorable Penguins skaters in the goal-scoring department.

TNT commentator Paul Bissonnette (15 games), 2017 Stanley Cup hero Ron Hainsey (16 games) and son-of-Ray winger Chris Bourque (20 games) are on a list of 57 skaters to play at least 10 games for the Penguins without scoring a single regular-season goal.

4. Join the club

While it’s accurate to say goalies have scored 19 goals in NHL history, the club Nedeljkovic joined is actually more exclusive than that.

Seven of the 19 goals scored by goalies were actually awarded to the netminder because he was the last player on his team to touch the puck before an opponent put it in the net.

And Ron Hextall twice actually shot a puck into an empty net.

Therefore, Nedeljkovic is one of only 11 goalies to have actually shot a puck in a net during an NHL game.

5. Not my job

While Nedeljkovic prides himself on his puckhandling, scoring is obviously not his job.

That calls to mind two other curiosities in Pittsburgh sports history.

On July 10, 2021, Tyler Anderson became the last Pirates pitcher to hit a home run, taking Marcus Stroman deep during a 6-2 win over the New York Mets. The NL adopted the designated hitter the following season, making it possible that Anderson’s blast may in fact be the franchise’s last for a pitcher.

On Nov. 27, 1960, quarterback Bobby Layne kicked an 11-yard field goal in the fourth quarter of a 22-10 win over Washington, making him the last non-kicker to make a field goal for the Steelers. Layne kicked two field goals in the game, and halfback Tom Tracy made three.