With just two more sleeps, Lars Eller will make history.
The third-line center has skated in 998 career games and will become the first Denmark-born player in NHL history to make it to 1,000 when he takes the ice Saturday night against the Canadiens. That’s, of course, assuming Eller, who hasn’t missed a game this season, plays Friday night versus Florida.
Eller smiled after Thursday’s practice in Cranberry when reminiscing about his NHL debut for the Blues in November 2009, which doubled as the night of his first career goal.
“It was a surreal moment,” Eller said. “That was not really on the map for me when I grew up, I think. I love hockey, but to make it to the NHL was not something I really found realistic when I was just a young kid.
“And then, later on, as I got older, that grew on me and started to become a possibility and then became a reality. It’s been a fun journey.”
For much of his 15-year NHL career, Eller has operated as a key cog in a team’s bottom six, which is the case this season in Pittsburgh. He was brought aboard to reinvigorate the third line that was such a sore spot for the team a season ago and he has lived up to the expectations in the process.
Eller has had a rotating cast of wingers operating on either side of him all year, but he’s been a consistent contributor regardless. While Eller hasn’t put up more than four points in a month, he’s totaled no fewer than three with a plus-1 rating on the season.
Not to mention, he’s regularly skated on the Penguins’ second power-play unit for the last two months while still being a mainstay on coach Mike Sullivan’s penalty kill.
“I think Lars has had a real solid start to our season,” Sullivan said. “He's participating in a lot of the different aspects of our team game. I think he's responded to those challenges pretty well.”
Eller is the only member of the Penguins’ bottom six who has skated in all 44 of their games. Drew O’Connor has yet to miss a contest, but he’s up on Evgeni Malkin’s line these days and has spent a number of others on Sidney Crosby’s.
Instead, it’s been a revolving door of forwards that Sullivan has relied on to round out his third and fourth lines. Some of that shuffling is due to injuries, like the still sidelined Matt Nieto, while others such as Radim Zohorna have played their way both in and out of the lineup.
Eller has skated in the most games of any bottom-six player, though fourth-liners Noel Acciari and Jeff Carter have combined for 74 appearances. A steady Carter has gotten his fair share of penalty-kill shifts, but Eller and Acciari rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the team for ice time amongst Penguins forwards, per Natural Stat Trick.
The pair of bottom-six centers have come as advertised, their efforts essential to a penalty kill that has the NHL’s eighth-best conversion rate.
“We've killed off important kills against good power plays at key times,” Eller said. “I think it's something we can rely on. When we need a big kill, we know we have guys to get the job done. So that has been a positive and something we need to continue to be a strength for us.”
The value of a strong penalty kill is only heightened when contrasted against the Penguins power play that is better than just that of the lowly Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins’ struggling extra-skater attack would perhaps be less of a talking point if their offensive contributions weren’t so top heavy.
As is to be expected, the Penguins have been paced offensively by their superstars. Eller’s 14 points lead all regular bottom-six players. Acciari, while strong defensively and centering a line that has successfully played low-event hockey, has just four points this season in 36 games.
After an admittedly slow start for the bottom six, Acciari feels his and Eller’s lines have been better about chipping in some occasional offense recently.
“Showing up on the scoresheet, knowing when there's games that either the power play or the big guys on the top two lines maybe can't find the net as much, that's when we need to pick up the slack and help out,” Acciari said. “I think we've done that in some games. And I think, as a bottom six, we want to do that more.”
Acciari is adamant about him and his fellow role-playing forwards staying strong defensively, not conceding odd-man rushes in the name of offense. Even generating such chances is easier said than done, too, considering less than 11% of Acciari’s face-offs have come in the offensive zone.
Despite the overwhelming majority of their starts coming in the Penguins’ own end, the line of Carter, Acciari and Jansen Harkins has a positive expected-goals share.
“They get put in difficult positions and they embrace that role,” Sullivan said. “They're excited about going over the boards in that circumstance and more often than not, they get the job done for us.”
Such an assessment could be applied to the Penguins’ third and fourth lines in general. While not flashy, they’ve hardly been an impediment. That style is the name of Eller’s game and has allowed him to craft a career that is about to hit quite the milestone.
The mission for Eller and the rest of the bottom six is quite clear: Be strong defensively, wear opposing teams out and establish offensive zone time whenever possible. So long as the Penguins’ third- and fourth-liners can continue to do as much, their coveted contributions will be more likely to transpire.
“Play a low-risk game, and the more that we can chip, the more it'll help guys like Geno and Sid to relieve them,” Eller said. “I think everybody has to strive to continue to improve.”
Around the boards
Defenseman John Ludvig and forward Reilly Smith are each “tracking the right way” in their respective rehab processes, per Sullivan. Both Ludvig and Smith skated individually before Thursday’s practice. Ludvig is eligible to rejoin the team on Saturday.
The Penguins made a minor-league trade Thursday evening, dealing defenseman Will Butcher to the Minnesota Wild. In return, the Penguins received Maxim Cajkovic, a 23-year-old forward and third-rounder in the 2019 NHL draft who has spent most of the season in the ECHL.
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: January 25, 2024, 7:59 p.m.
Updated: January 25, 2024, 9:01 p.m.