The numbers paint the picture of one of the most impactful defenders in hockey.
Entering Friday, he ranked among the NHL’s top five players in plus-minus rating. The Penguins generate 31.1 scoring chances per 60 minutes of five-on-five play when he is on the ice, tops among the team’s blue liners. On the flip side, opponents generate just 23.9 chances per 60 minutes, again the best rate among their regulars.
Oh, and he’s doing all this while routinely going up against the league’s top scorers.
Kris Letang, if he maintains his lofty level of play, should get Norris Trophy consideration after the season. But the numbers above belong to his unheralded defensive partner.
Brian Dumoulin, the mild-mannered Mainer, is quietly in the midst of a career season. The 27-year-old leads the Penguins with a plus-21 rating through 37 games and is on pace, with 10 points, to pass his previous high by St. Patrick’s Day. Plus, his large presence is a primary reason the Penguins have the league’s third-stingiest penalty kill.
Letang, who has been excellent this season with eight goals and 29 points already, is understandably getting a lot of attention in this big bounce-back season, leaving little left over for Dumoulin. That, Dumoulin said after Friday’s practice, is totally fine by him.
Despite Dumoulin being 6-foot-4 and 207 pounds, he can go long stretches of games without popping out to the untrained eye. That’s usually a sign he is on his game.
“Overlooked is definitely an understatement because there is so much star power on this team. He’s kind of a stay-at-home defenseman who is crazy solid,” said Casey DeSmith, who has a good view of Dumoulin from the Penguins’ net. “Everybody cares about who’s scoring points. ... But at the end of the day, wins come from guys like that, too.”
While Letang likes to bolt into the offensive zone to play tic-tac-toe with fellow stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Dumoulin is often found hovering at the blue line. He can do some stuff with the puck, too, but knows his limitations and is comfortable in his role.
“I know Tanger’s going to take chances, and I want him to,” Dumoulin said. “Any time I see him jump, then I try to stay back and try to play off his role and try to talk to him as much as I can. He’s playing really well right now, and it’s fun to play with him.”
The feeling is mutual for Letang, who knows Dumoulin will usually have his back.
“He’s a really reliable guy on both sides of the puck,” Letang said. “Obviously, we all know what he’s capable of doing defensively. But he’s also a good thing for my mind so I can just go play my game and try to create offense. I know he’s always back there.”
The Penguins have cut down on odd-man rushes in recent weeks. DeSmith marveled at how well — when they do happen — Dumoulin defends them, using solid positioning and his long reach to prevent back-door passes and discourage shots from between the dots.
“He’s a big body with a big stick and if you can figure out how to use your stick, that’s very, very tough to go against,” added Tanner Pearson, the former Los Angeles Kings winger who faced Dumoulin a few times a year while they were in the minor leagues.
“He’s always been the same. He played against the top guys [in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton] and then he comes in, breaks though and is doing the same thing up here,” he said.
DeSmith said another underrated aspect of Dumoulin’s skill set is his impressive speed given his size, which helps him get back to cleanly dig dump-ins out of the corners.
“Nothing is going to blow you away about his game,” he said. “But everything is very sound and really solid. And I think [a complete skill set] is what makes him so good.”
Plus-minus is far from a perfect stat. It is more a team stat than an individual one. One can get tagged with a minus on a fluky goal that bounces in from center ice — whether or not a goalie is in the net. And a skater can be rewarded with a plus when the other four guys on the ice put one into the net while he’s on the way to the bench for a change.
That said, if you’re a plus-21 in late December, chances are you’re doing a lot right.
“I don’t think it’s a full indicator in how you’re playing. But it’s definitely there for a reason, I think,” Dumoulin said, adding, “It’s always good to be up there in something.”
Dumoulin said as long as the league keeps track of that stat, players will take note of how they stack up. But he said he doesn’t need to look at it to know how well he played.
Interestingly, he said he doesn’t “think there is a big difference” in his play this season compared to last, when, as a minus-5, he was in the red for the first time in his career.
“If you’re playing well and the team is playing well, that kind of stat will come,” he said.
But when it does, like it has so far, it shines a light on how someone like Dumoulin, who probably wouldn’t crack the team’s first-half highlight reel, subtly impacts winning.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel. Click here to subscribe to Matt’s weekly From The Point hockey newsletter.
First Published: December 28, 2018, 8:25 p.m.
