Penguins' lack of secondary scoring has become primary concern

Rickard Rakell is one of the more erudite members of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ask the winger to explain a scoring sequence or a forecheck, and he can detail it to an atomic level.

But regarding his own struggles as of late, he is curtly blunt.

“Not good at all,” Rakell said after a practice session Monday in Cranberry. “Not creating enough. That’s it.

“Not good.”

Rakell is not wrong, either.

In the past 10 games, he has no goals and has been limited to four assists.

And he’s not alone.

So much of the Penguins’ secondary scoring — a characteristic this team has treasured under coach Mike Sullivan — just hasn’t been present as of late. Or at least in the past two games.

In a 3-2 road loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday, the Penguins’ only goals came from second-liner Reilly Smith and first-liner Sidney Crosby. One night later, in a 2-1 road loss to the Winnipeg Jets, first-liner Bryan Rust accounted for all of the Penguins’ offense.

Like Rakell, so many sources of presumed secondary scoring have gone dry.

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• Smith’s goal on Friday snapped an 11-game stretch without a goal. That figure might have been longer had Smith not missed six games because of a suspected left arm injury in January.

• Forwards Jeff Carter and Drew O’Connor — the latter recently was demoted from the second to the third line — have two points (one goal, one assist) each in their past 12 games.

• Before he was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL on Jan. 28, rookie forward Valtteri Puustinen was limited to two assists in his most recent 13 NHL contests despite being somewhat regularly deployed on the second line as well as the power play.

• Fourth-liner Jansen Harkins, who suffered a concussion Saturday, has yet to score a goal in 43 NHL games this season.

• And while it’s probably not fair to evaluate them through the same lens, reserve forwards Jesse Puljujarvi (three games) and Colin White (seven games) have yet to record any offense in their brief tenures with the Penguins.

Combined with a comatose power play — ranked 30th in the NHL with a Lilliputian conversion rate of 13.9 % entering Monday — the lack of consistent secondary scoring has stifled the Penguins — 5-6-3 since the calendar flipped to 2024 — as of late.

The solution might be more mental than physical.

“Be more confident,” said Rakell, deployed on the third line as of late. “Not just rely on the first or the top-six guys. Not be satisfied that we’re playing 0-0 and just waiting around for them (the top-six forwards) to score. That’s maybe something that we can do a better job of.”

Physically going to the areas of the ice where goals commonly occur could be spruced up as well.

“We want to get some more looks in the slot area, the danger area,” Rakell said. “At the same time, putting the pucks to the net is a good start for us to make sure we get guys going there and create those second chances and rebounds and stuff like that.”

Rakell, who has labored through a lack of production and injuries all season long, was a bit more verbose when asked how he can alleviate the Penguins’ dearth of secondary scoring.

“Do what I’m good at, try to attack with the puck,” he said. “Make sure that I get pucks down low and get open. I’m chasing the game too much, chasing the puck too much, playing without the puck too much.

“Getting too frustrated.”