CALGARY, Alberta — Carl Hagelin found himself a healthy scratch for Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Edmonton.
Although Hagelin has been dealing with a few minor health issues, it’s not hard to figure out at least one of the reasons why the Penguins decided to give him a night off.
“Bottom line, I have to score,” Hagelin said. “It doesn’t matter how much you shoot, you have to score.”
Hagelin has not scored much since the start of last season, and the drought has the Penguins in the unenviable position of paying Hagelin $4 million a year — only to get nowhere near that in terms of offensive production.
Especially as five-on-five goals have been harder to come by for the Penguins’ entire team. Hagelin doesn’t see power-play time. Scoring five-on-five is where he should theoretically be making himself most valuable.
As a group, the Penguins have scored just five goals during five-on-five play over their past seven games.
“That’s a big part of my game,” Hagelin said. “I have to start scoring five-on-five.”
That’s the easy part. Pinning down why Hagelin hasn’t scored isn’t as easy.
Look at the number of shots on goal Hagelin has generated. It pretty much aligns with what he’s done through his career. Over the past two seasons, Hagelin has averaged 2.1 shots on goal per game. His career mark is 2.2. This season Hagelin has gotten 32 shots on goal in 14 games, an average of 2.3 a night.
Where the biggest dip comes, of course, is in Hagelin’s shooting percentage. It’s almost like it fell off a cliff.
Hagelin shot 9.4 percent and averaged .21 goals per game (17 over an 82-game season) from 2011-12 through 2015-16. Over the past two seasons, Hagelin has shot just 4.4 percent.
“The good thing is, the more you shoot, sooner or later they’re going to go in, right?,” Hagelin said.
That’s the hope anyway.
Hagelin has spent time up and down the lineup, with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, on the opposite wing as Patric Hornqvist, in roles where theoretically he should score.
After returning from a broken fibula that hampered him at times last NHL, one of the NHL’s best and fastest skaters also feels like the process is there.
“I think I’m playing better,” Hagelin said. “I think I’m skating better this year. That’s why I’m getting more shots and more looks.
“I know when I’m involved and getting some shots on net, I’m doing something good. Just have to keep doing that, get a good bounce here. The more you throw pucks at the net, usually it goes in sooner or later.”
The positive part to all of this is that Hagelin is the type of player who doesn’t necessary need a gaudy goal total to influence outcomes. He’s responsible defensively, communicates well on the ice and is among the Penguins’ best penalty killers.
“ ‘Haggy’ is an important player for us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s played in a lot of high-stakes games for this team and helped this team have so much success.
“Our expectation is high for ‘Haggy.’ Our hope is that he becomes that two-way player we know he’s capable of. He brings that leadership capacity in the locker room. He’s a great teammate. That’s what we love about him. That’s what we want to see from him on a consistent basis.”
If puck-possession is your thing, Hagelin hasn’t helped much there, either. He’s contributing to a shot rate of just 49.85 during five-on-five play, which would qualify as a career-worst for him.
The same can be said for the number of five-on-five goals the Penguins have scored compared to the other team when Hagelin is on the ice (42.86) and his individual shot rate per 60 minutes of ice time (13.2).
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Hagelin not scoring has also been a contributing factor to the Penguins’ bottom-six struggles.
In the lineup Sullivan has most often used — Sidney Crosby with Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary, Evgeni Malkin with Bryan Rust and Phil Kessel — only Patric Hornqvist (five goals) has scored more than once among bottom-six forwards.
Through 15 games last season, Matt Cullen and Nick Bonino had combined for four goals by themselves. Hagelin, Eric Fehr, Scott Wilson and Rust — the wingers who saw the most bottom-six minutes at the time — had two goals apiece.
“We have to start scoring five-on-five,” Hagelin said.
So few goals might be frustrating for some, but that’s not how Hagelin operates.
He’s stayed positive through this whole thing, believing soon his luck will change.
“There have been some pretty good looks in recent games that I’ve had or been involved in, two-on-ones and stuff,” Hagelin said. “It’s frustrating at times, but I think more for me, I’m getting the looks. It’s important to keep going. It’s fun to be out there and getting chances offensively. But any player will tell you, it is more fun to score.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: November 3, 2017, 1:25 p.m.
Updated: November 4, 2017, 5:20 a.m.