Tim Benz: As most eyes were on Mikael Granlund's debut, other Penguins stole the show in Tampa

On Thursday night, all eyes were on who the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired to help them before the trade deadline.

Instead, some players who have been asked to step up for a while finally skated into the spotlight.

Specifically, some defensemen who need to score more often and depth forwards who need to elevate their games.

The Penguins needed every offensive contribution they could get to win a high-event, back-and-forth contest in Tampa Bay 5-4 in overtime. The attraction heading into the game was Mikael Granlund. The former Nashville Predator forward was making his debut for the Penguins after being acquired Wednesday evening for a second-round draft pick.

Jason Zucker was the story coming out of the game, though. He had two goals including the overtime game-winner.

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That’s not a surprise. Zucker has been quite good for the Penguins this season, especially since late December. Thirteen of Zucker’s 19 goals have been scored since Christmas. He has been part of a top-six forward unit that has combined for 129 of the Penguins’ 199 goals. Without them, this team would have sunk a long time ago.

In order to keep up with the Lightning and set the stage for Zucker’s heroics, however, the Penguins got two goals from defenseman Jeff Petry, two crucial assists from defenseman Marcus Pettersson and a goal from fourth-liner Drew O’Connor.

Goals from the bottom-six forwards and blueliners not named Kris Letang have been like seeing Halley’s Comet. On Thursday, those players were part of a veritable meteor shower in Tampa.

Petry, a $6.25 million cap hit acquired from Montreal in the offseason, had just three goals coming into the game. But he scored two within the span of 25 seconds in the second period Thursday, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.

Jeff Petry: 2
Lightning: 1 pic.twitter.com/2Q9wRli7Z6

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 3, 2023

They say Lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice… but Jeff Petry does. pic.twitter.com/uAYy672ZBn

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 3, 2023

“To get up in the rush and to get that weight off my shoulders is a good feeling. … Hopefully we can bottle this feeling up and take it over to (Miami),” Petry said, referring to the team’s upcoming game Saturday against the Florida Panthers.

Pettersson was another defenseman who put his imprint on the victory. After Tampa tied it at 2-2, he feathered a perfectly led homerun pass to Zucker for his first goal of the game.

That's goals in three-straight games for Jason Zucker! pic.twitter.com/KBehRtiidR

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 3, 2023

Then Pettersson set up Zucker again for the game-winner.

JASON ZUCKER, OVERTIME HERO!

Scott Zucker is officially invited to all of our future games. pic.twitter.com/MUudbH0uEt

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 3, 2023

Those were Pettersson’s 18th and 19th assists of the season. Pettersson suddenly has multiple points in three of his last four games. The boost from Petry and Pettersson was crucial given that Letang missed a big chunk of the game after getting hit in the face with a puck in the first period, which led to Tampa Bay’s first goal.

Then there was what the depth forwards did following the addition of Granlund and the departures of Teddy Blueger, Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn. Over the past week, Kapanen and McGinn were placed on waivers, and Blueger was traded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

The culling of the depth components up front seemed to wake up those who remained. Jeff Carter played one of his best games of the season, registering two assists, his first two since the Winter Classic in Boston on Jan. 2. Meanwhile, O’Connor scored an eye-catching, power-skating goal in the third.

DREW O'HMYGOSHCONNOR ???? pic.twitter.com/gToea9gRXg

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 3, 2023

That was O’Connor’s fifth goal. He now has points in three of four games, a welcomed trend given the dearth of scoring from the Penguins support pieces up front.

“He’s strong on the puck. His footspeed is really evident,” Sullivan said of O’Connor. “He’s really taken an understanding of how we are asking him to play to carve a role out for himself.”

That’ll be a lot easier for O’Connor to do with some of those other options moved off the roster.

As for Granlund, he was a plus-1, with no points, one hit, and was 4 of 10 in the faceoff circle. He was also on the ice during a penalty kill that resulted in a goal for the Lightning to tie the game at 3-3 early in the third. But Sullivan seemed pleased with Granlund’s Penguins debut.

“It was a tall task. We used him in a lot of key situations, and he really hasn’t had an opportunity to learn the subtleties and details of how we are trying to play. We gave him an overall foundation,” Sullivan said of Granlund. “But I could tell early on he has a lot of hockey sense. He has a high hockey I.Q. I thought he played really well.”

If so many other parts of the Penguins continue to improve, maybe those aspects will allow Granlund’s acclimation process to happen at a reasonable rate.

But with the way these up-and-down Penguins have performed all year my free advice for Granlund would be don’t expect to be comfortable for too long.