Three Penguins scorers eyeing up 20-goal seasons
Playing perhaps their biggest game of the year Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins got no points from Sidney Crosby or Phil Kessel. Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang didn’t play because of upper-body injuries.
Yet, they beat the Carolina Hurricanes anyway, securing a 3-1 victory thanks to goals from fourth-line forwards Garrett Wilson and Matt Cullen and third-line winger Patric Hornqvist.
Cullen didn’t have to think hard to figure out what lesson that taught.
“This is the time of year I think it’s important to get depth scoring,” he said. “These are tight games. If we can get four lines going, that’s important for us. It’s important every night.”
By one metric, the Penguins might be better positioned to get offensive production from throughout their lineup in critical late-season games than they have in recent years.
Four Penguins players — Crosby, Malkin, Kessel and Jake Guentzel — have already hit the 20-goal mark this season. Three others — Hornqvist, Bryan Rust and Jared McCann — are within two goals of joining them.
If two of the three manage to hit the milestone, it will be the first time the Penguins have had more than five 20-goal scorers in a season since 1995-96.
“You hope the best for those guys,” winger Dominik Simon said. “You don’t think about it on the ice, but he’s my teammate. I’ll do my best to help him reach it and do my best so our team can score as many goals as we can.”
Reaching the 20-goal mark means different things to different players. Here’s a look at what it would mean for McCann, Rust and Hornqvist:
Breaking the glass ceiling
For McCann, who has 19 goals heading into Tuesday night’s game in Detroit, scoring 20 would represent fulfilling his potential.
A first-round pick in the 2014 draft, McCann didn’t hit double digits in goals in his first three years in the league. A trade to the Penguins helped recast him as a scoring-line option. His offensive ceiling is almost certainly higher than he was given credit for during the first two stops of his NHL journey in Vancouver and Florida.
“It would be nice,” McCann said. “I’m not going to dwell on it, though. It’s not something I really focus on that much, but it would be nice to get 20 goals, be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL, for sure.”
Not looking back
For Rust, who has 18 goals, scoring 20 would help erase the miserable memories of the first half of the season. It’s easy to forget, but Rust scored one measly goal before Dec. 12.
“I think if you asked me after those first 30 games how many goals I would have, I don’t think I would have told you over six,” Rust said. “Hockey’s a funny game. You can do everything right. Everything can be in place, and then things don’t happen the right way. You hit the post or your stick breaks or things like that. I guess what goes around comes around. As long as you just kind of stick with it and keep getting those chances, things are going to happen.”
Keeping his spot
For Hornqvist, who also has 18 goals, hitting 20 would show that at age 32, he remains one of the league’s most consistent scoring threats.
There are only 16 players in the NHL who have scored at least 20 goals in each of the past six seasons. If Hornqvist ditches his second-half scoring slump and buries two more pucks, he’ll make it 17.
“He’s just a great team player,” Simon said. “You want to have that guy on your team because he battles hard and plays hard. Sometimes it’s pretty. Sometimes it’s not pretty. It’s just about finding a way. He’s a great example of that.”
Jonathan Bombulie is the TribLive assistant sports editor. A Greensburg native, he was a hockey reporter for two decades, covering the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for 17 seasons before joining the Trib in 2015 and covering the Penguins for four seasons, including Stanley Cup championships in 2016-17. He can be reached at jbombulie@triblive.com.
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