Playing with a rare lead helped the Penguins snap their losing streak

Bryan Rust did something Tuesday he hadn’t experienced in a while.

Sure, he had a hat trick, his first nearly 15 months. But there was far more relevant sensation Rust felt that evening.

He played with a lead.

During Tuesday’s 7-3 home win against the Ottawa Senators, the Pittsburgh Penguins went out in front 48 seconds into the game and held the lead the rest of the way.

Over the previous two weeks, when they were mired in a miserable six-game losing streak, the Penguins experienced a lead for a mere 6:03 of a possible 360 minutes. That brief sequence occurred Feb. 23 during a back-and-forth 5-3 road loss to the rival Washington Capitals.

“When you go such a long stretch without having a lead really and you’re always trying to fight your way back in games, it’s nice to get that lead,” Rust said. “I don’t know if it’s a sense of comfort, but it might add to the confidence a bit.”

Ultimately, the most important time to have a lead is when the game ends. But playing with a lead, especially as early as the Penguins established one Tuesday, can make life much easier.

“Oh yeah, it’s different,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “We want to be better at that, too. Whenever we have a lead, keep attacking. We’re at our best when we’re attacking the game and we’re playing aggressive and we’re skating all over the ice. We really want to play with the lead and keep attacking.

“Whenever we had the lead in the (6:03), we’ve kind of tried to play on it a little bit. We’re not as good as we are when we stick back and try to protect anything. That’s not our identity, and that’s not when we’re at our best. We want to attack the game, and I think that’s what we did (Tuesday). That allowed us to play with the lead for a long time.”

Added captain Sidney Crosby: “You’re probably less likely to take chances and force plays and press on certain opportunities. That’s a big part of it. It’s a combination of how you play and how the other team plays, too. There’s a certain level of comfort that they have (when in the lead) and take less chances. All those things combined, it’s always beneficial to have the lead. When you’ve lost a few in a row, that gives you a big boost when you get the lead early.”

The energy a team expends when trailing is different than with a lead or even a tied score.

“It’s an uphill battle,” said Crosby, who scored the winning goal Tuesday. “You’re probably using less of the bench. It’s a little bit more of a grind, for sure. The game is a little bit tighter because the team you’re playing against probably isn’t opening up a ton. So you’ve got to work harder for opportunities. Taking a penalty becomes even greater because if they score on the power play, they add to their lead. It’s a small margin for error.”

The benefits of playing with a larger number on the scoreboard than the opposition almost appear to offer a larger boost emotionally than physically.

“It’s a lot more mental, too, because you want to create so much,” Pettersson said. “You kind of tense up. You kind of hold your stick a little bit too tight. When you have a lead, we want to play aggressive. You can kind of let loose and keep skating. Whenever we’re skating well, we always seem to be in an attacking mode.”

Added forward Teddy Blueger: “Once you lose a couple in a row and you’re behind the next game, it’s harder to maintain your composure. You’re more prone to take risks and get more aggressive.”

A working knowledge of Boolean algebra isn’t required to understand why it is good to have a lead at any time in a game.

But for a team that barely experienced one over the span of two weeks, attaining an early advantage offered a pretty vivid refresher on the benefits.

“I thought it was important in that game last night that we were able to get the first goal,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “To score in the first couple of minutes like we did was a huge boost for our team. It helped our overall confidence. It’s amazing the jolt of energy that you get when you score like that, especially early in a game. Given the circumstance that we were in, I thought it was important in that particular game.”

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