It would take Brandon Tanev just a few shifts to drain the Energizer Bunny.
Whenever he steps onto the ice, the only time he stands still is when he’s waiting for the faceoff. Other than that, he’s a shot-blocking, body-checking blur.
It’s no different in the locker room. In his first season in Pittsburgh, he barged into everything, whether it was the team fantasy football league or friendly trash talk between teammates. His lips move just slightly slower than his feet.
This winter, while discussing how the Penguins had mostly bagged morning skates, linemate Zach Aston-Reese playfully suggested that the change gave Tanev more time to “rock back and forth in his bed, waiting for the game to start.”
So what has the antsy winger, probably the most hyperactive person and player on the Penguins, been doing to stay sane while stuck in self-isolation?
“Building puzzles,” Tanev said Wednesday. on a video call with reporters.
Wait, is this the same guy who snow-angels in front of 90-mph slap shots then winces his way down the tunnel, only to storm back looking for more?
A team source confirmed that it was indeed Brandon Tanev on the call.
When the NHL suspended play March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanev opted to stay in Pittsburgh rather than head back to his hometown of Toronto. Instead of sitting around, he decided to forecheck boredom with fervor.
In addition to going on longer runs and his meandering rollerblade sessions, Tanev has been reading “different books,” burning up bandwidth on FaceTime calls with friends and family and channeling his inner Gordon Ramsey. He likes to turn on some tunes in the kitchen and grill salmon or bake banana bread.
Then there’s his puzzling new hobby.
Tanev said he hadn’t pieced together a puzzle “in many years” before the season halted. Looking to give his brain a workout, he decided to tackle a 500-piece puzzle. Once he knocked that out, he upped the ante to 1,000 pieces.
“I think it’s great to keep the mental aspect of yourself strong during these times,” Tanev said, adding, “[Puzzling] can be a mental grind at times, especially with the higher-volume puzzles that have a ton of pieces in them.”
Interestingly, he thinks it is translatable to problem-solving out on the ice.
“When you’re trying to think through a certain situation, I think you’re able to do that when you’re looking for a piece,” he said. “Maybe you’re getting frustrated and you don’t want to do it anymore. Your mind is telling you to give up.”
Tanev, 28, continued: “But at the same time, that puzzle needs to be finished. And without that piece that you’re looking for, the puzzle can’t be finished.”
After a lifeless 2018-19 season and stunningly getting swept out of the playoffs, the Penguins felt Tanev was one of their missing pieces when they signed him to a six-year, $21 million contract on the first day of free agency last July.
That signing had skeptics who argued that it was too long of a commitment to a bottom-six grinder who had 24 career goals prior to joining the Penguins. But, at least in Year One, Tanev proved to be worth his salary and then some.
He threatened to become the first Penguin with more than 300 hits in a season since Brooks Orpik in 2008-09. He ranked first among their forwards in blocked shots. And among his 25 points, four shy of his career high, were a few clutch goals. His two overtime winners tied Sidney Crosby for the team lead.
“I’ve enjoyed every moment,” he said. “I made the right decision to come to Pittsburgh. The organization and the team and everybody involved have been first class. … It made things so much easier for me coming in as a new player, when you’re able to come in it almost feels like you’ve been here for years.”
Tanev is itching to get back on the ice so he can chase after the Stanley Cup with the Penguins. It remains unclear if and when the season will resume, but according to multiple reports, the NHL and NHL Players Association could soon sign off on a one-time playoff format that would expand the field to 24 teams.
That proposal would send those teams straight to the postseason pressure cooker without regular-season tune-ups. The first round may be only five games.
So it’s probably not a bad thing Tanev is puzzling to keep his mind sharp.
“Obviously, there’s going to be an adjustment period,” Tanev said. “But I think the league and our organizations are working things through right now, and they’re going to do a great job when we resume. That’s the main focus here, to get back to the game we all love when things are right for us to do that.”
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: May 21, 2020, 9:00 a.m.