ST. LOUIS -- Unlike Juuso Riikola, Zach Aston-Reese had scored in the NHL before. Eight times, to be exact.
When he scored No. 9 and his fifth of the season in Saturday nights 6-1 win over the Blues, the 24-year-old tried to play it cool. At least for a nanosecond.
But it's not every day he scores a highlight-reel goal. As soon as the puck dented the net behind Blues goalie Jake Allen, Aston-Reese's teammates quickly reminded him that he'd just scored a very Sidney Crosby-like goal.
You know the one. Crosby's done it dozens of times.
At the 7:16 mark of the second period, with Crosby standing 20-feet to his left, Reese, standing to the right of the St. Louis net, opened up his stick blade to redirect Kris Letang's slap-pass above Allen's left shoulder:
"I saw Sid do it a few times, I figured why not?" Aston-Reese was saying afterward with a big smile. "Nah, it happened quick and just put my stick out and it took a nice hop off it."
Saturday night was a big game for Aston-Reese. Not only did he score and get into his first NHL fight -- losing a third-period decision to Joel Edmundson in which he was happy he "didn't get hit that hard" -- Aston-Reese was skating on the top line.
When Bryan Rust left the game after the first period with a lower body injury, Aston-Reese moved up to Crosby's line with Jake Guentzel. It's a spot he held briefly last February after being called up from Wilkes-Barre.
"You know you're going to get a few Grade-A chances," he said. "The next shift, drew a penalty and had a pretty good chance there. It's just about being ready to bear down on the puck and find some good positions in front of the net."
One of the fringe benefits of playing on Crosby's line, in addition to being on the receiving end of Crosby's passes, is that opponents are keyed in on him and Guentzel.
That's exactly what happened on Aston-Reese's goal as the Blues left him all alone to the right side of the net, as Letang explained:
"I think we got them caught staring at Sid and it kind of opened everyone else," Letang said.
No, there was really no "we" that got the Blues caught staring. It was all Letang who did that.
Of the dozens of times that Crosby has scored on that same redirection, Letang has probably earned the primary assist on 99.9 percent of them.
What made Aston-Reese's goal most remarkable was Letang's no-look pass that would have made Magic Johnson proud. As Letang drifted to his left from atop the circles, he fired the slap-pass to his right with his head up and looking toward Crosby.
Not two minutes later and just seven seconds into the Penguins' third power play chance of the game, Letang did the same thing on Patric Hornqvist's goal (which was originally credited to the defenseman).
From the top of the point, Letang this time looked to his right toward Crosby at the right half wall and Evgeni Malkin at the right side of the net. Instead, he fired a wrist shot back to his left where it found a piece of Hornqvist's stick and past Allen, who was then yanked after giving up four goals on 17 shots.
According to Sullivan, one of the keys to the Penguins' power play resurgence has been Letang taking on a "shooter's mentality" from atop the power play.
"Tanger's been more wiling to shoot the puck from up top and it opens up a lot from the rest of it," Sullivan said. "We can create plays off the rebound. But certainly it forces our opponents to respect that shot from up top and other things open up because of it."
When I asked Letang about the no-look thing afterward, he just shrugged, "It's just a play."
Not sure about that, but it's the kind of plays that should garner Letang some serious Norris Trophy consideration. With eight goals and 24 assists for 32 points, he is now sixth in scoring among defensemen.
In a season where some of the usual suspects are having either down years or injuries, it should open up a spot for Letang, who has been a Norris finalist just once (2012-13) in his 13-year career.
Coming off an injury-hampered 2017-18, Letang is showing once again why he's one of the NHL's elite talents.
