Freddy Gaudreau has a combined six NHL goals between his 95 career NHL games -- 87 games in the regular season and eight in the playoffs.
The first three of those goals came against the Penguins, all in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.
Three games into his career in Pittsburgh, recalled to play center after injuries to Teddy Blueger and Evgeni Malkin, he's still looking for his first point in a Penguins uniform.
Gaudreau came close to netting his first when he hit a crossbar in Sunday's game, a 2-1 overtime loss to the Devils at PPG Paints Arena. But it was Gaudreau's defensive role that played a bigger part in this one.
The injuries to the Penguins' top penalty-killing forwards Blueger and Brandon Tanev have created an opportunity for other forwards like Gaudreau to step up and fill that role. And in a game as close as Sunday's against the Devils, the strong work of the penalty kill was one of the keys to getting the game to overtime.
Gaudreau didn't see any penalty-killing time in his first game this season, but played significant shorthanded minutes in the last two games, including the second-most of any forward after Colton Sceviour on Sunday. He cleared the puck out of the Penguins' zone during the second of the two kills on Sunday:
The Penguins went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, following up the unit's 4-for-4 performance in Saturday's game.
"I think we've adjusted pretty well over the last few games with our PK," John Marino said of the perfect penalty-killing despite Blueger and Tanev being out. "We're able to go back, watch video, see what we've done wrong. We've been able to execute, which is huge."
Gaudreau has been one of their stronger forwards in the faceoff circle in the past few games, going 3-for-6 in his first game, 3-for-3 in his second game, and 3-for-7 in Sunday's game. It's a very limited sample size, but he's shown potential to this point.
"Freddy's done a really good job," Sullivan said. "He's a competitive kid. He's won some faceoffs for us, he's done some penalty-killing for us. And he's had some scoring chances. I thought his line had some offensive zone time, he's generated some scoring chances, he hit the crossbar tonight, he had another chance where he cut across the slot, that shot kind of against the grain moving away from the goalie's motion. I think he's played pretty well since we've asked him to come into the lineup here."
This was that miss off the crossbar:
Just after the miss off the crossbar, Gaudreau carried the puck nearly 200 feet and helped set up a scoring chance when he dropped to Sceviour, who set up Kris Letang:
"I think he's done a really good job," Sidney Crosby added of Gaudreau. "It's not easy, he's thrown into pretty key roles. I thought he's played really well, I thought he looked really good tonight. He made some great plays, did a great job on the kill. Really solid. That's huge when you can have guys step in like that and play the way he's played."
Gaudreau plays both wing and center, although he's played only center up to this point in both Wilkes-Barre and Pittsburgh. With his versatility, skating ability and ability to step in do well on the penalty kill, he could keep challenging for a spot (like that of Mark Jankowski) when (or if) the Penguins get healthy at forward.
"The thing about Freddy is No. 1, he's competitive, and he also has hockey sense," Sullivan said. "So he has the ability to play multiple positions, we can move him around. But we've needed him here at the penalty kill position with some of the guys we have out, and we think he's done a pretty good job of it."
Gaudreau didn't have much of a defensive role in his six games in Wilkes-Barre earlier in the season, playing a top-six center role and playing on the top power play, but Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest told me Sunday that they "absolutely" saw that Gaudreau had the ability to at one point step into a more defensive role like the one he's currently playing in Pittsburgh.
"It's one of the reasons he's getting an opportunity," Forrest said. "You know, they've got a ton of injuries right now, and they're trying to find ways to get through a tough period as far as having players in and out of the lineup. So we saw that from Freddy when he was down here. He's smart, he's good on draws, and he certainly knows what he's doing out there on the penalty kill. It's good to see him be able to contribute in Pittsburgh."
With both Malkin and Blueger expected to be sidelined for the foreseeable future, players like Gaudreau will continue to get a chance to earn their spot in the lineup for the time being.
"Every game is an opportunity to establish ourselves in the standings, it's an opportunity for people to step up and contribute," Sullivan said. "This is a resilient group, and I think these guys have handled it really well."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Crosby's goal from the goal line was the Penguins' only tally on Sunday:
• With the game tied entering the third period after Sami Vatanen's second-period goal off of a shot from the point, the Penguins tightened things up defensively and made a push for a go-ahead goal. They took 19 shot attempts in the third period, and held the Devils to nine attempts.
"I thought our third period was our best," Sullivan said.
I asked Crosby what he thought the Penguins did so well in the third to control the play the way they did.
"I thought we just kept it simple," he said. "In the second we were probably guilty of turnovers, in the first a little bit too. But I thought in the third we just simplified things and got a good forecheck and created some good chances off of that. We had our looks and didn't put them in."
• Tristan Jarry was great, making 33 saves on 35 shots.
"Tristan was real good in the first two periods," Sullivan said. "I don't think we managed the puck as well as we could have in the first two periods, and Jersey got some quality chances off the rush in particular. But Tristan made some big saves for us."
• Jesper Bratt beat Jarry in overtime with this wraparound chance:
• Tanev was announced as a game-time decision in the morning, but did not take warmups and didn't play in the game. Sullivan said after the game that Tanev "injured himself" in the first game against the Devils on Thursday and actually left Friday's practice early, unnoticed. He was not hurt in Saturday's warmups like we initially thought.
• Jason Zucker is skating again with the taxi squad in full equipment as part of the rehab process, and Sullivan said that the team is "encouraged with his progress."
• There were eight other teams with scouts at this game, the most I've seen here all season. The Avalanche, Sabres, Hurricanes, Red Wings, Jets, Ducks, Golden Knights, and Coyotes had scouts at the game.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena
1. Jesper Bratt, Devils
2. Tristan Jarry, Penguins
3. Mackenzie Blackwood, Devils
THE INJURIES
• Forward Jason Zucker is out longer-term with a lower-body injury sustained on Feb. 23 and has resumed skating.
• Defenseman Mark Friedman is day-to-day with an upper-body injury sustained on March 4. He's resumed practicing with the team.
• Forward Teddy Blueger is out longer-term with an upper-body injury sustained on March 15.
• Forward Evgeni Malkin is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained on March 16.
• Forward Brandon Tanev is day-to-day with an upper-body injury sustained on March 18.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Evan Rodrigues-Jared McCann-Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese-Mark Jankowski-Sam Lafferty
Colton Sceviour-Freddy Gaudreau-Anthony Angello
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Lindy Ruff's Devils:
Janne Kuokkanen-Travis Zajac-Yegor Sharangovich
Jesper Bratt-Jack Hughes-Kyle Palmieri
Mikhail Maltsev-Pavel Zacha-Nicholas Merkley
Andreas Johnsson-Michael McLeod-Miles Wood
Dmitry Kulikov-P.K. Subban
Ryan Murray-Sami Vatanen
Ty Smith-Damon Severson
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have a scheduled day off Monday, then they'll practice at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. They'll play back-to-back games against the Sabres on Wednesday and Thursday.
THE CONTENT
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