Within the first six minutes of Sunday evening’s 3-2 overtime win against the Rangers, Rickard Rakell felt the full force of New York’s fourth line.
First came a hit by Tyler Motte. Then another from Barclay Goodrow. Rakell didn’t shy down, similarly putting his body on the line by blocking a pair of Rangers shots while delivering two hits himself. One of Rakell’s blocks forced him to briefly exit Sunday’s game, though he soon returned after a needed “breather.”
Such a physical style of hockey is commonplace among bottom six forwards, which is exactly what Rakell is these days.
“I like playing these kinds of games. It reminds us of the playoffs against them last year,” Rakell said. “It’s just a taste of how it’s going to be for these upcoming games that we play them.”
By no means did he play himself out of a spot on Sidney Crosby’s first line, even with Rakell’s recently snapped 10-game goalless stretch in mind. After all, Rakell still had six assists during that goal drought.
Coach Mike Sullivan informed reporters prior to Saturday’s 5-1 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers that Nick Bonino would be sidelined on a week-to-week basis with a lacerated kidney, news that necessitated some shuffling of the lines.
Sullivan elected to slide Rakell down from the first to the third unit, which is where he resided over the weekend. Instead of working with Crosby and Jake Guentzel, Rakell now finds himself passing to the likes of Drew O’Connor and the recently acquired Mikael Granlund.
Though Rakell scored with the power-play unit’s familiar faces around him on Sunday, his Saturday goal came with both Granlund and O’Connor on the ice. It’s the only goal either net has seen when Sullivan’s third unit has been deployed the last two games.
The Penguins have also generated twice as many high-danger scoring chances as their opponents when Granlund, O’Connor and Rakell have shared the ice together over just under 20 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.
“We’ve been playing pretty well these last two games, and I think we just want to keep building moving forward,” Rakell said of the third line. “We want to be tough to play against and get more and more responsibility to help our team.”
Being tough to play against, as Rakell put it, is certainly easier said than done, what with the previous third line of Kasperi Kapanen, Brock McGinn and Jeff Carter that Sullivan utilized for much of this season in mind. Rakell continues to produce at the level expected of a top-six forward, as evidenced by his 23 goals this season.
But there’s more to Rakell’s game than putting pucks into the net, Sullivan said.
“Not only can he score goals, but he sees the ice. He distributes the puck really well and he’s ultra-talented,” Sullivan said of Rakell earlier in the week. “He has the ability to make something out of nothing. You think a play is going to die in the corner or it’s going to die in the half wall and all of the sudden, he comes out of the scrum with the puck.
“That’s what he’s capable of. He’s a really talented player, but I think his biggest impact when he’s not scoring is his playmaking ability.”
After a late February practice, Rakell commented that shooting wasn’t always his specialty. When playing in the juniors circuit, Rakell considered himself a pass-first guy. That quickly shifted once Rakell started sharing a line with the likes of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry on the Anaheim Ducks.
But Rakell is cognizant of the other aspects of his game that matter besides scoring, which in part has made him a natural fit on the third line. When mired in his since terminated scoring slump, Rakell showed little concern with his inability at that point to deliver goals for the Penguins.
Instead, he was thoughtful about what more he could do in other avenues.
“Any way you can help, it’s big for helping the team,” Rakell said, noting that he obviously wants to both score and help in other areas. “I think, for me, just trying to do the right things, try to be hard on the forecheck, turn over pucks and try to get in front of their net. I know, when I do those things, the goals are going to come, so I’m just going to try to keep doing that.”
Indeed, the goals have returned, much to the delight of a revamped third line. Albeit a much different player, Rakell can provide a spark for the third group like Phil Kessel once did for the Penguins’ HBK line of Carl Hagelin, Kessel and Bonino during the franchise’s most recent Stanley Cup runs.
Kessel injected some needed goal-scoring ability into that third line. Perhaps Rakell can do the same for O’Connor and Granlund with his commitment to both the offensive and defensive ends of the rink.
“He impacts the game in so many ways,” Sullivan said. “He’s a great playmaker. He’s around the puck an awful lot.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: March 13, 2023, 10:00 a.m.
