CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- If your nickname is "Stretch," you should be tall. And if your nickname is "Big Game," as Derick Brassard's is, well, there's a certain expectation that comes with that, too.
Fairly or not, Brassard has a reputation to live up to when the Penguins begin their first-round playoff series against the Flyers beginning Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
In his decade-long career, he has averaged .60 points per game in the regular season but .71 in the postseason. Since the 2013 playoffs, Brassard's 55 points are 10th among all active players and third in the Eastern Conference. Thus the "Big Game" nickname that was given to him a few years back by New York tabloids while he was with the Rangers. Suppose it beats "Guy Who Plays Well on Tuesday Nights in October."
First, the good news: After being sidelined the final five games of the regular season with a groin injury, it appears Brassard will play vs. the Flyers. He was a full participant in practice on Monday and reported no problems afterward.
Needless to say, that is an enormous relief for the Penguins.
After a slow start to his Pittsburgh career, when he had just a goal and an assist in his first seven games, Brassard was starting to come on strong, recording points in six straight games before his injury on March 27, including this power play goal against the Canadiens on March 21:
With the benefit of nearly two weeks off, Brassard should be well-rested and ready for his favorite time of the year.
Does that place undue pressure on him?
"No, there’s pressure for everyone around the league to perform at this time," Brassard was telling me Monday. "Everyone has pressure to do something. I don’t feel I have to put that on myself."
And he's right. Therein lies the beauty of the Penguins' acquisition of Brassard.
Unlike some of his previous stops with the Blue Jackets, Rangers and Senators, the Penguins don't need Brassard to carry them. There are a couple of other centers ahead of him on the depth chart who are paid quite handsomely to do that. You might have heard of them, too. Guys named Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
But they do need Brassard to contribute and, yes, produce. His final six games before the injury were a pretty good indicator of what he can do for the Penguins. He had a goal and five assists and started to find some real chemistry with Phil Kessel and Conor Sheary, with whom he skated again on Monday.
With a cast of centers that goes Crosby, Malkin, Brassard and Riley Sheahan, the Penguins are as deep at the center position as any team in the league. Faceoffs, individual matchups, defensive zone coverage, the Penguins can beat you any which way. Mostly, though, the center depth allows Mike Sullivan to balance out his scoring and roll all four lines.
"He's an experienced player, a big-time player," Carl Hagelin was telling me about Brassard, his former teammate with the Rangers. "He's going to help us a lot. You look at our centers right now, looks pretty good."
Looks pretty good and possibly historically great if it leads to a third straight Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh.
With the highly underrated Sheahan moving down to the fourth line, it presents a scary matchup nightmare for any potential opponent. While the Flyers were making plans to neutralize the Malkin line, what do they do against the other three?
Sheahan, the original third-line center Jim Rutherford dealt for this season, has shown himself to be quite capable in any role. Since coming over from Detroit in October, Sheahan recorded 11 goals and 31 points — his most production in three years — while winning a team-high 54.4 percent of his faceoffs in 73 games.
"There will always be a role for Riley," Sullivan said. "He's a very valuable player for us. We can use him in so many different capacities, and we have."
By leaning on their strength down the middle, the Penguins effectively doubled-down on their offense. One could argue, that in dealing Ian Cole and Ryan Reaves, they did so at the expense of their defense, penalty kill and team toughness. The Penguins' struggles down the stretch without Brassard are evidence of that.
But given Rutherford's and Sullivan's recent track record — two Stanley Cups, if you forgot — they seem to have a pretty good idea of what they're doing and what their team needed.
Does that put pressure on Brassard? A little. But he's not putting it on himself.
"I'm going to play in some big games in the next couple weeks and we’ll see what's going to happen," Brassard said. "I don’t try to put any pressure on myself. I just go out there and work hard and we’ll see what’s going to happen."