For the second time in just five days, the Penguins' pregame warmups began with the traditional rookie lap that takes place whenever a player is appearing in his first NHL game.
Forward Drew O'Connor, recalled from the taxi squad ahead of Tuesday's game after Evan Rodrigues was injured Sunday against the Rangers, led the Penguins onto the ice for warmups in Boston:
One of our favorite traditions: the rookie lap!
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 26, 2021
Great to see you out there, @drewoconnor17!
This behind-the-scenes moment, brought to you by @glidden_paint. pic.twitter.com/YYfi22v9Ao
I asked O'Connor about that moment after the game.
"It was definitely pretty cool skating out there for the first time," he said. "It was a lot of fun."
O'Connor was one of the standouts among the Penguins prospects who participated in training camp this winter.
"He skates really well," Mike Sullivan said of O'Connor during training camp. "He has good size. Has good poise with the puck. He makes good decisions. I think he's really shown himself extremely well."
Those attributes were on display in O'Connor's debut, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Bruins.
Here's how his night went.
O'Connor debuted on the left side of the fourth line alongside Mark Jankowski and Colton Sceviour, and played 10:51 total in ice time, including 4:38 on the second power play unit and :22 on the penalty kill. It was familiar territory for O'Connor after playing on both the power play and penalty kill at Dartmouth.
When I asked about O'Connor's nerves in his debut, he said that he was nervous at the start, but felt comfortable as the game went on.
"The first couple of shifts I was kind of shaking off the nerves a little bit, then I settled into the game," he said.
One of the things that stood out to me early on in O'Connor's game was his willingness to drive to the net and use his big 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame in that net-front role. An early example was midway through the first period, when O'Connor was on the ice with the second power play unit. He carried the puck in the offensive zone, showing poise and patience with the puck until Jason Zucker got open. O'Connor then got in position for a screen or a redirect, but Zucker's shot went wide:
O'Connor nearly got a tip-in in that spot on another power play in the second period.
O'Connor was back in front of the net as a Penguins power play expired midway through the third period. A puck went off of the inside of his skate and back toward the empty left circle, and Jared McCann recovered the puck. McCann's shot was blocked by a Bruin and was directed right toward an open Zucker who buried it while Tuukka Rask was down on the ice. It was a weird sequence of bounces in front of a goaltender who wasn't able to move well enough to make a play, but it counts all the same. O'Connor had his first NHL point, a secondary assist, in his first game:
O'Connor even took a faceoff in the second period, stepping in for a draw in the second period after McCann got tossed from the circle. It was again familiar territory for O'Connor, who played center in the second of his two seasons at Dartmouth. He won the draw:
I asked Sullivan after the game how he'd evaluate O'Connor's performance in his debut.
"He was great," Sullivan said. "I thought he had a real strong game. He was good on our second power play, we used him a little on the penalty kill. I think he skates really well, he's got a good stick, good hockey sense. I thought he had a real good first game."