From The Point is a weekly Penguins column from insider Matt Vensel, powered by North Shore Tavern, Pittsburgh’s home for steak on a stone.
Like a lot of kids growing up in Ontario, Shaun Suisham harbored dreams of a pro hockey career. That sport was — and years later still is — his true passion.
But Suisham had a gift for booting footballs, tiptoeing into the American game when an uncle asked him to moonlight as the kicker for his high school team.
He was midway through his senior year, and sidelined from hockey after he got hurt in an on-ice scrap, when he got a scholarship offer that changed his life.
“[Playing football] was not something that I had dreamt of, but it was a great opportunity. When I got to Bowling Green, I showed up without kicking cleats. I showed up with a broken hand from a fight. I had just turned 18 when I came to the U.S.,” he said with a laugh. “And that was the start of my football career.”
And what a career it was. After a successful stint at Bowling Green, Suisham spent a decade in the NFL. He split the uprights 211 times, retiring in 2016 with a field goal success rate of 84.1%. That ranks 27th in NFL history. His football days abruptly ended when he tore up his knee while playing for the Steelers.
It was that painful, unfortunate injury that put Suisham on the path that recently saw him be named the girls hockey director for the Pens Elite youth program.
This week, he was down in Tampa, Fla., coaching the girls at Tier I nationals.
“I have such a passion for it,” Suisham said. “I love these girls. I love this job.”
Suisham started out as a figure skater at age 4. “The following year, thankfully Mom and Dad gave me a hockey stick,” he said. He played up until he left for college. He didn’t regularly lace up his skates again until he was kicking for the Steelers and started to play with Penguins employees at PPG Paints Arena.
“When I came to Pittsburgh, the Penguins were fantastic to me,” Suisham said. “And I started going out to the staff skates on game day. That started about 10 years ago. Once I started to get back on the ice, I checked in with Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin and said, ‘Are you guys OK with this?’ They were all for it.”
He suffered a torn ACL in the 2015 preseason. His knee was never the same after he was injured covering a kickoff. But there was one activity he could still comfortably do — skate. He called being able to play hockey “the greatest gift.”
“After my NFL career ended, I jumped straight back into hockey,” Suisham said.
Suisham started to play beer league in Pittsburgh, where his family planted its roots, and helped coach little kids. His two daughters got into the game, too.
“They love hockey, and Pittsburgh is an unbelievable place, in large part due to the support of the Pittsburgh Penguins. There aren’t a lot of places in the entire country like Pittsburgh,” he said. “It’s a big part of the reason that we stayed.”
But Suisham and his wife also saw ways they could improve that experience.
He remembers taking his girls at Baierl Ice Complex in Warrendale back in the day. At that time, there was no dressing room that was exclusively for female players, so they had to put their gear on in a bathroom or the referees’ room.
“I was like, ‘This sucks. It’s not the experience that I had as a boy,’” he recalled.
So Suisham said they worked with Teammates for Kids, a charity organized by Garth Brooks, to have a girls-only dressing room installed at Baierl Ice Complex.
“That was the beginning,” he said. “Then it dug a little deeper with Pens Elite.”
The Pens Elite program, based out of UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, had only a part-time program for girls when Suisham first started working there formally.
Over the last six years, during which he has exclusively coached girls, the Pens Elite program has evolved to the point where there are seven girls teams, some of which travel to premier tournaments like the one that Suisham was coaching at this week. Pens Elite has put some girls on track to earn NCAA scholarships.
“We wanted to create the greatest experience for our female hockey players,” Suisham said. “And then watching it happen in real time, it’s really exciting.”
Suisham laughed when told the storyline of a former NFL player who became a girls hockey coach sounded like something out of a Disney movie. He feels blessed that everything played out this way, helping him reconnect with his “first love.”
“The sport has given so much to me,” the 42-year-old said. “And I know I can help us to continue to grow in our pursuit of creating the greatest girls hockey experience in North America. I’m really excited about what we have coming up.”
POINT SHOTS
• I try to avoid absolutes when analyzing the Penguins — and all sports really. We can make predictions based off sound reasoning but we don’t know for sure how things will play out. Just look at what happened in this wild playoff race.
Many of us — this reporter included — were ready to stick a fork in the Penguins after they collapsed in Western Canada then traded Jake Guentzel. Hey, to be honest, it didn’t feel like the Penguins had much belief in themselves, either.
But other teams faltered, the Penguins rediscovered their fire and focus at the last possible moment, and suddenly they were back in it after their inspiring road trip.
• I don’t know if the Penguins will roar all the way back. After getting everyone’s hopes up, I could see them suffering one of their patented meltdowns, with that costing them a playoff spot. There is a large body of evidence that points to the last few games being a mirage. But the mood around this team has changed.
• So what has been different? And is it sustainable? Obviously, Sidney Crosby has gone back into hockey god mode and Alex Nedeljkovic has provided reliable goaltending. Drew O’Connor and other young guys have given them a jolt. They are showing more of a commitment to defense with their backs against the wall.
I do think this team is capable of keeping all that going for another two weeks. Another two months? Yeah, not ready to go there. I keep thinking back to all of those mental lapses we saw, as recently as just one week ago at Columbus.
• One major issue that lingered throughout the point streak was odd-man rushes allowed. The totals, per Sportlogiq, during those games: 6, 10, 7, 12, 16, 8, 11.
• Another interesting stat from our friends at Sportlogiq: The Penguins lead the league in goals scored on shots taken from the point with a screen in front. They had two more Thursday as they earned a massive W in Washington. They are especially good at generating those chances off of O-zone faceoff wins.
THREE STARS
3. Ryan Shea. He’s made the most of his latest opportunity to play NHL games. His first career goal was the ice-breaker in their win in Washington, and on that road trip he teamed up with Jack St. Ivany to provide solid third-pair play.
2. Alex Nedeljkovic. What a story Ned has been. He wasn’t supposed to start in New York. Next thing you know, he reeled off three straight wins. Entering the weekend, he was 5-0-2 in his last seven starts, with a .923 save percentage.
1. Sidney Crosby. As good as Nedeljkovic has been, no player has been more impactful than the captain. As of Friday, he had five multi-point games over his last seven outings, clinching a record for the most point-per-game campaigns.
YOU ASKED ...
What does the future of the Penguins goaltending situation look like?
— Peter Kadar (@PeteKadar) April 4, 2024
I have been asked this question a dozen times during Nedeljkovic’s impressive starting run. I dove into it in Wednesday’s paper but happy to rehash it here.
Right now, it’s clearly Nedeljkovic’s net. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan should lean on the scrappy backup until Nedeljkovic gives him a good reason not to.
Next season, I believe the likeliest outcome is the Penguins running it back. They can re-sign Nedeljkovic and let him press Tristan Jarry for more playing time, and top prospect Joel Blomqvist can continue to come along at his own pace.
I think all bets will be off after the 2024-25 season. Will Jarry still be here? Will Blomqvist be ready for a regular NHL role? What will the team’s ambitions be?
Anyway, my advice is to enjoy this run by Ned and worry about the future later.
STAT N’AT
5 – NHL players who completed 400 shot assists and 50 passes to the slot this season, per Stathletes. One is Crosby. The other four guys are 30 or younger.
FINAL BUZZER
Even if the Penguins do come up short in their push for the playoffs, you wonder if what they have shown recently will have any impact on Kyle Dubas’ thinking when it comes to retooling this roster for the 2024-25 season and beyond. There is a danger in putting too much stock into a couple exciting weeks of hockey.
A few trends he can feel confident about? When you have Crosby, you have a chance. Nedeljkovic is a keeper. And relying on young players is a requirement if the task remains building around a core of four players in their mid-to-late 30s.
Those things stood out as they fought to make these April games meaningful.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and @mattvensel on X
First Published: April 5, 2024, 8:02 p.m.
Updated: April 6, 2024, 6:34 p.m.
