Kovacevic: No one's seized the Penguins' 'opportunity' like Rodrigues

Tristan Jarry's been the Penguins' MVP to date. And yeah, I felt that way even before he finally prevailed in a shootout, shooing away the Panthers, 3-2, on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Jeff Carter's been so, so much more than anyone could've expected upon his arrival. And yeah, I felt that way well before he'd skated circles around everyone for three full hours, then reaped a just reward with the shootout winner.

Kris Letang's the lone remaining Core piece, and he's performed at nothing less than the bar he'd long ago set for himself. And I felt that way long before he used that San Jose Game 6 dangle to set up Teddy Blueger's icebreaker in this one.

But if there's one player who's been most emblematic of this team's push-through, its perseverance through this absurd array of injuries and illnesses that've afflicted as much as a third of the roster at times ... it's this one:

Evan Rodrigues has been everything I'm about to list:

• The team's leading scorer with eight points, tied with Jake Guentzel but with one more goal, and its leading goal-scorer with four, tied with Danton Heinen

• The team's leader in Corsi For percentage at five-on-five, which tracks shot attempts taken by both teams while a player is on the ice, at 59.18% ... which is -- get this -- the eighth-best figure in the entire NHL, trailing the likes of David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews

• The team's leader in five-on-five defending, having been on the rink for a total of two even-strength goals-against and only 18 high-danger chances against, or 1.5 per game!

He's also been emblematic of everything Mike Sullivan hoped this team would establish in this first month or two.

And no, I don't need analytics, advanced or otherwise, to cement that last case. I just need to look down from the press box, follow the play and find that it's being carried more often than not, by the squirtbug in the No. 9 sweater. And when it isn't, he's churning to retrieve it like no one else, in opponents' faces like no one else ... and being knocked down like no one else. It's seldom smooth, and it's seldom in a straight line, but it's also curiously close to perfection within the Sullivan system.

Put it another way: In a scenario where all concerned on the Pittsburgh side would've agreed it'd be a really bad idea to trade chances with Florida's exceptional forwards ... it wound up not feeling that way at all.

Why?

Because the Penguins, fueled in part by this little engine, can still physically skate with anyone.

"It was huge," Rodrigues would answer when asked how much his goal, which snapped a 1-1 tie with 2:07 left in the second period, meant to the cause. "As a line, even as a power-play unit, I don't think we had a great second. We had a few too many turnovers, a lot of odd-man rushes, back-and-forth ... and with that team and how much skill they have, that's a dangerous game to play."

And yet ...

"It almost sucks you in when a team plays like that," he'd continue. "You're trading chances. You get excited. It's always nice to feel the puck, to shoot the puck. Yeah, you almost get roped into playing that game, but ..."

But ... they did. At least in that period. And the reason they'd score the period's only goal was that John Marino, Jason Zucker and Rodrigues all had the speed, skill and smarts to pounce on four Panthers being trapped. From there, Rodrigues whipped an in-flight wrister under the left arm of a sharp-all-night Sergei Bobrovsky.

This matters. 

Like, a lot.

Because, while both the practicing and the preaching will stay the same once Sullivan returns from the COVID protocol, so will the need for depth and dynamism throughout the lineup. And Rodrigues, if I'm being brutally blunt, wouldn't have been seen as a lock to crack the season-opening lineup if everyone, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had been available. He was a fourth-liner at best in that scenario.

Maybe he still will be, too. But when Sullivan repeated all through training camp, the preseason and the start of the regular season how all those absences provided 'opportunity,' this was what he had in mind. Someone or multiple someones putting themselves into positions where management couldn't afford to take them out. Or, at the least, would cringe in doing so.

I don't mean to make too much of the player. That wouldn't be fair. Rodrigues is 28, he's 5-11 and 184 pounds, he's never hit double-digits in goals over parts of seven NHL seasons, and his greatest claim to fame might be his adorable penchant for wishing everyone in the media room a "Good day" or "You guys take care" or even thanking us for interviewing him.

But this is also an intelligent, ambitious individual who wouldn't be the first to find his way a little later on the career path.

His timing, thus far, is exquisite.

• There've been plenty of tribute videos for returning Penguins in this place, but, aside from Marc-Andre Fleury, I can't recall any crowd response that was more vocal, more passionate than the one that followed Patric Hornqvist's formal homecoming.

And then, the man himself:

Good for him. Good for the city. He'll always be the author of one of Pittsburgh's greatest sporting moments, in addition to all else he brought here.

• Now, that said and respectfully followed up, he's also got one goal through 14 games for Florida and, in this one, had no points, two shots and precious little visibility over 14:29 of ice time.

And was that really Andrew Burnette, the Panthers' interim head coach, assigning Hornqvist to go third in the shootout ... because of a homecoming?

Yikes.

• I asked Todd Reirden afterward about Carter's overall showing, which is hard to quantify, shouldn't be qualified within the context of his being 36 years old, and definitely shouldn't be condensed to a shootout goal.

"That's just been a great, great acquisition for us," Reirden began, referring to Ron Hextall acquiring Carter from the Kings in February in exchange for Who Really Cares What It Was. "He's someone I'd coached against for a while, and obviously you see the success that he had in L.A. winning Cups, being part of Olympic teams, now moving into the all-time top 100 for goals. But until you get him in-house, you don't understand how good he is."

Big smile across the interim coach's face here.

"Like, he was obviously phenomenal for us last year. And going into this season, knowing we'd have to lean heavily on him with Crosby out, with Malkin out ... he's delivered. And he's delivered more than just on the ice. If I could talk to you about the amount of things he does and says in our room and says on the bench ... we are so fortunate to have this player. Especially going through what we're going through."

• For the record: I asked to speak with Carter after the game. He politely deferred, hoping Jarry, Rodrigues and the rest would get some attention instead.

• Don't be fooled, though:

• Now that Jarry's made it OK to talk actual goaltending in actual hockey settings, let's repeat it with gusto: He's been great.

After these 36 saves through 38 regulation and overtime shots, his save percentage is up to .929, eighth-best in the NHL among goaltenders with eight-plus starts. And his goals-against average is down to 2.23, seventh-best. This is where he was a couple years ago, and it's where he'll need to be to regain the confidence he'll need.

Best save percentage, by the way, belongs to Bob at an insane .949. Not that he's any match for Rodrigues or Blueger.

• I could watch Aleksander Barkov play hockey as a 24-hour marathon. And Jonathan Huberdeau's not far behind. What a terrible waste that their home games are in Sunrise rather than, oh, Quebec City.

• Marcus Pettersson goes down because ... of course he goes down. Everyone goes down.

That's got to change at some point soon. It just does. This isn't sustainable. 

Not in this division:

Not when the only that's below the Penguins is a virtual lock to qualify for playoffs. Some very good teams won't be invited.

• A trips to both of the league's national capitals is on tap for this weekend, Ottawa then Washington. And after a home game Tuesday with the Sabres, it's a three-game tour of Canada: Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg. An ideal time to cut down on the trend that's seen the Penguins concede 38-plus shots in four of their past five games.

• Hell, yes, I'm making the Canada trip.

• Anyone remember Drew O'Connor?

He's replaced his Kevin Stevens with Alexei Kovalev, and he needs to do exactly the reverse.

• Taking Juuso Riikola and/or P.O Joseph out of the lineup to replace either with Mark Friedman is akin to ... oh, I'll leave that to someone who can keep it clean.

• Friendly reminder, with all these missing defensemen and so many of the healthy ones being tasked with carrying Mike Matheson, that Cody Ceci means magic in any language:

• One final time, my own thanks to those who've served our country in the Armed Forces, with a special nod to Pittsburgh's own 911th Airlift Wing.

Thanks for reading, as always. My next column will set up Steelers vs. Lions this weekend at Heinz Field.