While Derick Brassard certainly would’ve liked to play the final five games of the regular season, the Penguins acquired him for games like Wednesday night.
When the playoffs kicked off, he was ready to go.
Brassard returned to the lineup for the Penguins’ 7-0 win against the Flyers for the first time since March 27. He played 13:44 and picked up an assist on Jake Guentzel’s power-play goal in the second period.
It may not have been the best playoff performance in his career, but after two weeks out of game action, he’ll take it as a good starting point.
“Everything was good,” Brassard said. “Just the legs and the lungs a little bit after missing a week. It was hard, but the first one is out of the way. I’m going to work hard tomorrow to try and get there and try and get my legs going. Hopefully I can have some better games.”
Brassard said he knew as early as Monday that we would be able to return Wednesday night.
Before he got hurt, he was carrying a six-game points streak, but seemed to take a bit of time to work himself back into the game on Wednesday. The ice time was Brassard’s lowest of the season, and he had the lowest Corsi For percentage (CF%) on the Penguins at 26.1.
He did, though, win 71 percent of his draws and deliver a picture-perfect feed to Guentzel for his goal to make the score 4-0.
“A really nice play by Conor [Sheary] and Brassard there,” Guentzel said.
More than this one individual performance, Brassard is looking forward to a Stanley Cup run with the two-time defending champs. The Penguins ended his season last year when they knocked out the Senators in the Eastern Conference final, so Brassard his hoping to be on the other side of that result this time around.
“I think the experience of this group is up there,” he said. “Going on two Stanley Cup runs the last two years, I think we’re going to answer the right way. That’s something we were talking about. Enjoy the day, be in the moment, but you have to turn the page the next day, you have to have a short memory in the playoffs. We’re going to enjoy that one for sure.”
And maybe just as much as the result, Brassard said he’ll remember the energy in the building for his first playoff game in Pittsburgh.
“It was a great atmosphere, that’s what I was expecting,” he said. “A lot of emotion around the building, obviously. Just coming down to the rink today, everyone’s wearing their jersey, it’s pretty impressive to see. As a player, it doesn't go unnoticed. We kind of feed off of that and I’m just glad the first one is out of the way so now we can move on, play Game 2.”
That last point was a major theme in the Penguins’ locker room postgame, and Brassard was no different. A 7-0 win was nice, but it doesn’t matter as soon as the puck drops for Game 2 Friday.
“Like always in the playoffs, you try and enjoy that one for the night and when you wake up the next day, tomorrow, it’s back to getting ready for Game 2,” Brassard said. “Getting a good practice, making sure that we’re doing what we have to do.”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG
First Published: April 12, 2018, 3:26 a.m.
