About a week ago, following a Penguins' win over the Blue Jackets, I spoke with Dominik Simon about his scoring drought. He hadn't scored a goal since Jan. 19 in Las Vegas. He was generating a high volume of shot attempts in that span, he just couldn't finish the job.
His plan was to just keep shooting.
“I better shoot, like, 5,000 pucks and see if it’ll change," he laughed at the time.
Finally, Simon snapped his 20-game goalless streak on Saturday afternoon, scoring the Penguins' lone goal in a 5-1 loss to the Blues. Patric Hornqvist knocked Blues forward Zach Sanford off the puck, and Sanford kicked the puck right to Simon when trying to recover:
It definitely wasn't a huge goal in the context of the game — all it did was cut the Blues' second-period lead to three goals. But ending that streak was huge for Simon.
"I just tried to put it on the net," Simon said of his goal following the game. "It went five-hole I think, or somewhere. Not a nice goal, but I'm trying to get any."
Hey, he did say after that Blue Jackets game that ending the drought was going to be about getting a "greasy" goal, and he was right. Picking up a loose puck that a guy on the other team accidentally kicked to you definitely isn't a pretty way to get it done, but he got it done.
Simon's always been pretty honest about the way he's feeling about his game, even back when I'd talk to him in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. When I spoke to him during the drought, he wasn't feeling very confident in his shot. I asked him about what tonight's goal did for his confidence moving forward:
"It's obviously always good when you score, when you make some chances or do something," he said. "So it definitely feels good. But we have a big game tomorrow again, we have to rebound off this."
Simon had five shot attempts during five-on-five, tied for the second-most on the team. And, yes, he led the team with a Corsi For percentage of 69.57, on the ice for 16 attempts for and seven attempts against during five-on-five.
Finally, one of those Corsi Fors turned into an actual goal.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Blues, PPG Paints Arena, March 16, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS