MONTREAL -- Sitting at his locker stall following Saturday night's 4-3 shootout loss to the Canadiens at the Bell Centre, Derick Brassard was fielding a question in his native French.
When asked another question in English, the Hull, Quebec native looked deep in thought, curling up his left leg and pulling it close to his chest.
The brief exchange was a microcosm of Brassard's 2018-19 season so far. The versatile forward has had to adapt quickly to different roles and different supporting casts. With what should be a legitimate chance to win his first Stanley Cup, he's not complaining about it either. Since coming over to the Penguins in last year's blockbuster trade with Ottawa, Brassard -- one of the NHL's more affable players -- has grown comfortable in the Penguins' room, and they with him.
“Awesome guys,” he was saying. "It’s always fun to come to the rink here.”
It has been getting Brassard to fit in on the ice that's proven to be a little trickier. It's been sort of a round hole, square peg situation.
As Mike Sullivan reiterated last week, on most any other team Brassard is a second-line center. Thing is, he's not one on the Penguins. Not with a couple guys named Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin ahead of him on the depth chart.
When the Penguins acquired Brassard, it was almost assumed that he was the final piece in Jim Rutherford’s puzzle, the answer to the long-running question of who the third-line center would be when the Penguins won their third straight Cup. Of course, neither happened. He scored three goals in 14 regular-season games with the Penguins before a groin injury threw him off and, by the time the Penguins’ playoff run ended in the second round, he was on the fourth line, playing just 10 minutes per night.
With a clean slate this season, the hope was that Brassard would bring real depth down the middle.
It's not that he hasn't played well in the early going, he has played well enough, but the Penguins haven't played him often enough or in the right situations to maximize his skill set.
Brassard is averaging just 15:24 of ice time, which is 10 seconds fewer than what he was getting with Columbus when he broke into the league. It's more than two minutes less than what he was accustomed to when he played with Ottawa, and 90 seconds fewer than what he was getting in New York with the Rangers.
With the Blue Jackets, Brassard had been receiving 58.6 percent offensive zone starts. With the Rangers it was 57.2 and with the Senators 54.8.
Through four games this season in a third-line role with the Penguins, Brassard has been getting just 32.5. With a longer way to go, Brassard has somewhat predictably struggled to score.
His lone point was a goal in the season opener vs. Washington. That also was the game that Sullivan employed him as a penalty killer, playing him 1:34 shorthanded.
When Brassard took the ice late in the first period to kill a penalty, he said he believes it was the first time in his 11-year career that he had been on for a shorthanded faceoff -- and it was against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals' lethal No. 1 unit.
“I’ve never done it before, but it's something I can get involved with getting more minutes, more involved in the game," Brassard said after the Oct. 4 opener. "It's a totally different feeling than a power play."
The last time he was a regular on the PK unit was with Drummondville in the QMJHL, though he says Alain Vigneualt had used him and Mats Zuccarello in the final 15-20 seconds of kills while with the Rangers.
Since the Oct. 4 game against the Capitals, Brassard has played just :44 seconds on the PK, all of it coming in the second game of the season. Since then he's played strictly at even strength and on the power play.
The latest effort to maximize Brassard came Saturday night when Sullivan placed the 31-year-old at left wing on Sidney Crosby's top line while moving Jake Guentzel to the right.
The move to the wing was hardly a surprise given that the Penguins have five natural centers in their lineup, not counting Derek Grant who was assigned to Wilkes Barre-Scranton last week.
“He can make a lot of plays,” Sullivan said of Brassard after Saturday's game. “I thought Sid's line had some scoring chances. He’s a playmaker. He sees the ice really well. It’s something we've been considering for a while. We thought we'd give it a shot to jumpstart the group here.”
Indeed, Brassard played a season-high 17:26 while generating three high danger scoring chances with a 43.90 Corsi For in all situations. Though that latter number is not particularly good, it wasn't too bad considering that the Penguins were outplayed for large chunks in Montreal.
“It was fun," Brassard was telling me afterward. "Different challenge, obviously, playing with those two. Really enjoyed it. Too bad we couldn’t find the back of the net. Had some good looks. Had some really good possession time.”
Whether Brassad will stick with the top line remains to be seen but it certainly gives Sullivan something to think about moving forward. As Saturday showed again, the Penguins are desperate to get Brassard going.
• There was no official update on Justin Schultz, who suffered an ugly-looking leg injury in the first period of Saturday night's loss in Montreal. Neither Jim Rutherford nor Wade Arnott, Schultz's agent, were available for comment. But TSN's Bob McKenzie Tweeted that Schultz could be out for some time:
No official word yet from PIT on specifics of left leg/ankle injury suffered by Justin Schultz last night but speculation is it’s a fracture. Timeline TBD but it’s obviously going to be significant.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 14, 2018
If true, Schultz would likely be lost for at least six weeks. Sullivan will give an update following Monday's practice at PPG Paints Arena.
The obvious move would be for Jamie Olekisak to be reinserted into the lineup. The big defenseman was a healthy scratch for the first time in his Penguins career on Saturday.
Another move to consider would have Chad Ruhwedel come out of the press box. Ruhwedel has been the forgotten man as the eighth defenseman, but he's also the only other right-handed shot available. Kris Letang is the only right-hander with Schultz now likely out.
After being a healthy scratch Thursday vs. the Golden Knights, Olli Maatta was no better Saturday in Montreal. He might have been worse. Maatta had -- by far -- a team-worst Corsi For of 13.79 as the Canadiens had 13 shot attempts to the Penguins' three with Maatta on the ice.
To be fair, fellow Finn Jusso Riikola wasn't appreciably better, though the rookie did record five of the Penguins' season-high 25 blocks.
Maatta is likely to bounce back. He was arguably the Penguins' most consistent blueliner last season. But if Sullivan chooses to sit him down again, Ruhwedel would be a good choice. Theoretically, the defense pairs could look like this:
Dumoulin-Letang
Johnson-Oleksiak
Riikola-Ruhwedel