Riley Sheahan could have wanted out. He arguably should have wanted out.
Flash back to the afternoon of June 25. Sheahan got a call from Jim Rutherford informing him that the Penguins would not be extending him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent by the deadline that same day. Which meant, formally, that they were forfeiting his rights. And that, within a week, he could become an unrestricted free agent. Available to the highest bidder on the open market a year earlier than he could have expected.
It should have been exhilarating.
Instead, to hear him tell it, it was close to excruciating.
"We'd talked about their plan, and I knew what they wanted to do," Sheahan was recalling for me yesterday at PPG Paints Arena. "But I knew what I wanted, too, and that was to stay right here."
It's nuts, right?
Sheahan's 26, in the prime of his career. He was fresh off arguably his finest NHL season, with 11 goals and 21 assists over 73 games, as well as efficient penalty-killing and even the occasional foray onto the top six. Then, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, even with Jake Guentzel pumping goals at a historic pace, Sheahan might have been his team's most consistently dynamic forward in the six-game elimination of the Flyers.
I mentioned the latter to Sheahan, and he smiled slightly, "That was just one of those times where a lot of things were going right for me."
This free agency thing did, too. It was a gift.
But it was one he never hoped to open.
So he "waited by the phone for three or four days," as he described it, then picked up when it was Rutherford again, fulfilling his promise to make a sound offer to return. The salary cap was tight, Rutherford explained, and the center depth chart would still have Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Derick Brassard ahead of him -- Matt Cullen came later -- and he did so unapologetically.
Sheahan signed. One year, $2.1 million. A likely fraction of what he'd have been guaranteed on that open market.
Dude, why?
I'd asked him before, but I had to one more time yesterday. And the answer, I dare say, spoke volumes not only about Sheahan's character but also of the culture in which he chose to stay.
"I think we all know we have a winning group in here," Sheahan told me from the No. 15 stall that sits right next to the one for No. 87. "We enjoy each other's company. We trust in each other, in the coaching staff, in management. It's just a good organization to be part of, you know? I feel honored to be here."
Yeah. That.
Not everyone in professional sports, it's safe to say, operates with that mindset, as I mentioned to him.
"No, they probably don't. Some guys are going to put their personal success first, I suppose. And maybe that day will come. But when you're part of this organization, if that day ever comes when you have to go elsewhere, it benefits you to have succeeded here. Know what I mean?"
Sure do. Seen it for decades.
"But that's not my thinking now. My thinking now is that I just love being here, being part of this. If that means I play behind a bunch of great centers, not get as many minutes, not get as many points as maybe I would elsewhere ... this is what I want. Winning is what I want."
Thought that'd be a fun exchange to share on this, the morning of the 52nd season opener for this incessantly remarkable franchise.
Never take the Penguins for granted, my friends. Or the culture Sidney Crosby cultivates daily. Or the culture Mario Lemieux created so long ago.
• Until speaking with Sheahan on this day, it hadn't occurred to me but, wow, he and Cullen are going to be able to cheat like crazy on faceoffs this winter. Think about it: Try to get away with murder, get tossed, and have another superior faceoff guy take your place.
"Ha! Well, maybe we've talked about that, and maybe we haven't," Sheahan responded with a laugh. "I know this: I played against Cully when I was in Detroit, and I hated taking draws against him. Just hated it."
• Wait, the NHL's Department of Player Safety did something right?
It was tempting to make this two minutes of silence:
• The Penguins will have a final morning skate inside PPG Paints Arena at 10:30 a.m., but the Capitals will bypass theirs after spending last night in D.C. raising their Cup banner -- finally, meaningful laundry up there -- and blasting the Bruins, 7-0:
Look on the bright side: Maybe they'll all be exhausted from having to raise their arms all night long.
• For the record, the captain clearly couldn't care less that it's the Capitals for the opener. And I know this because I asked and he gave one of those telling headshakes before answering:
• These almost certainly will be Mike Sullivan's lines and pairings tonight, pending the health of Brian Dumoulin:
Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Brassard-Rust
Cullen-Sheahan-Sprong/Grant
Riikola-Letang
Oleksiak-Schultz
Maatta-Johnson
• Scapegoating being what it is -- every fan base of every team in every city has them -- I'm guessing that a loss tonight will be pinned primarily on Dominik Simon, since he seems to have become that guy.
Though, I'm not too sure why.
My guess is that Sullivan had him skate a few too many of his 33 NHL games last season alongside Crosby, and that might have made him come across as some sort of teacher's pet. Sullivan's had a couple of those in the past, but I can assure here that Simon's not one of them. In reality, it's the centers themselves who love having him on the wing. Including Crosby.
"He just supports the puck so well," Brassard was telling me when I mentioned the semi-backlash for Simon among some. "He makes all the little plays, and he makes them with speed. He's probably one of the better guys I've played with like that."
Crosby will speak much the same.
So how are they wrong and everyone else is right?
Well, I'll further guess that, because Simon had a bunch of chances while with Crosby and finished precious few -- he's got four total NHL goals in 46 games, including playoffs -- he became perceived as lacking skill.
Which is, of course, absurd, since scoring goals is hardly the only skill needed to succeed in the modern NHL. (Ask Daniel Sprong about that.) Possession has become paramount. The foundational advanced analytic known as Corsi measures, plain and simple, a team's shots taken and allowed while a player is on the ice. Think of it as the plus-minus of shots. Well, Simon's 54.5 Corsi rating in 2017-18 trailed only two forwards on the Penguins' roster: Crosby and Bryan Rust.
Watch him closely. He's a good player. Not everyone has to score, especially on a team like this.
• If Dumoulin's healthy, the above setup will obviously squeeze out Juuso Riikola, and that's as it should be. Not just because those are veterans ahead of him but also because those veterans, notably anyone who might have been perceived as being on the fringe, all performed well through camp and the preseason. Jack Johnson showed well, and Jamie Oleksiak was outstanding for the better part of it.
I get there will be a clamoring to see Riikola. That's neat. And justified. But a coach can't just flick guys aside for the benefit of a moment. Riikola's quite a talent. He'll have his day.
• Independent of that, I'm a bit puzzled by the bottom two pairings. Olli Maatta and Justin Schultz have played together a long time, and Johnson and Oleksiak would have brought a different, doubly physical dimension as a third pairing, enough to keep opposing forwards off balance. Hope that gets considered down the road.
• Speaking of Schultz ...
That's from practice yesterday, and that's some serious bar-down filth from anyone, let alone a defenseman. But let the record show that I posted this live and lauded Schultz's finish without initially mentioning that Matt Murray stopped literally every other shot he faced in the 10-minute drills. Including Crosby, Malkin, Phil Kessel, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang ... right on down the list. In fact, no one else even came close to scoring besides Simon.
So, what kind of a dirtbag disseminates such news so grossly out of context?
The kind that goes over to Murray afterward and confesses.
"You did?" the man came back, I think playfully. "No, you've gotta correct that right now. That was the only goal! The only one! And I got a piece of that one, too!”
He did. With the blocker.
And this matters. A loose Murray is a ready Murray.
Anyone else ready?
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins practice, PPG Paints Arena, Oct. 3, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS