It appears so antiseptic and soulless on paper — or in modern terms, in pixels.

Look up the play-by-play sheet for Game 0257 on the NHL’s 2020-21 schedule.

Scroll down to entry 143.

It looks so ordinary.

“PIT #18 LAFFERTY HIT WSH #33 CHARA, Off. Zone”

Just a simple hit during the first period. It had no bearing on the final outcome, in this case a 3-1 road win by the Washington Capitals against the Penguins on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena.

Just a hit.

But the tale of Penguins fourth-liner Sam Lafferty chopping down Capitals defenseman Zdeno Chara, merely a future inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame as well as the biggest player in NHL history at 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, with a shoulder on a forecheck behind the Capitals net is far more vivid than what a mere play-by-play listing can offer.

As a native of Hollidaysburg, chances are Lafferty probably had never come into contact with a mammal that large within the confines of Blair County unless the Pennsylvania Game Commission was involved.

The face of Marcus Pettersson explained that hit pretty well.

When asked about that play Monday, the Penguins defenseman flashed a smile as he detailed the reaction from Lafferty’s teammates.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool,” said a beaming Pettersson. “Whenever he gets out there and can skate and hit people, he gives a lot energy to our team. The past few games, he’s really been doing that. You can see when he steps out on the ice, he’s looking for somebody. It gives us energy. It gives us confidence.

“I think it was pretty cool to see him hit Chara like that.”

It was cool, and clearly it meant something to Pettersson and his teammates. But how important was the hit?

Statistics for hits are relatively new, having first been maintained by the NHL in 2005-06 after the league’s adoption of all sorts of so-called “real-time” statistics such as blocked shots and takeaways.

Coincidentally, the adoption of those “real-time” statistics, which are tabulated through the play-by-play sheets for each game, led to the rise of advanced statistics that were maintained, at first, by independent observers who devised algorithms to determine which players had the best puck possession metrics.

Today, the league and every team has staffers who sift through all that data to figure out what players drive the greatest possession metrics.

Invariably, having a high hit total typically suggests you don’t have the puck that much.

So, in the views of many, hits can be bad.

But not when context is applied.

In this case, Pettersson’s grin was quite a bit of context.

“Every coach would like to have a physical dimension associated with your team,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It makes you harder to play against. And there are players throughout your lineup that provide that more than others. But with our team, it’s probably a bit of a balance. If we have too many hits, it could be suggested that we don’t have the puck enough because you’re not hitting people when you have possession.

“But when we do put pucks to areas and have the opportunity to establish a forecheck, if we can finish checks and make it hard for defensemen to jump into the rush and things of that nature, stopping them in their tracks, I think it helps us create momentum and control territory. Hits are more contextual in nature than they are just a raw stat in and of itself.

“I’m not sure when you look at the hits statistic that you can draw any sort of conclusion from it without adding the context around it. And that’s what we try to do as a coaching staff.”

Lafferty, who has the fourth-most hits on the team this season (27) and the second-best figure as far as hits per 60 minutes of ice time (19.81), doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the context or the stats.

Having been a healthy scratch for two games this season, Lafferty simply looks at hitting as a way for him to remain in the lineup.

“It’s just part of my game,” Lafferty said. “It’s something that’s going to help me be successful. It’s something that I enjoy doing, and it’s something that I think creates a little more space on the ice and allows me to be more effective. It doesn’t really matter who it is. I’m going to try to finish my check.”

With one assist in 10 games this season, Lafferty can’t rely on offensive numbers to stay in the lineup. And with injured forwards Jared McCann and Evan Rodrigues potentially returning soon, Lafferty could find himself scratched again or even assigned to the taxi squad.

So he’ll keep bringing the hits to stay on the ice.

“Since I was a kid, I always was a lot smaller than everyone else, so I had to be a lot more aggressive,” Lafferty said. “I think I kind of picked that up when I was a lot younger. It’s something that’s always been a part of my game when I’m playing well. It’s definitely a strength of mine and something I want to continue doing.”

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