Ryan Poehling stormed across center red with one thought alone: Get the breakaway.
His speed having made that possible, it then became ... well, academic.
Take a look:
That'd be the icebreaking goal at 10:10 of the second period in what'd wind up a 4-3 victory for the Penguins over the Capitals on this Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, but it'd take all the style points even amid two other breakaway goals, a short-side ram by Jake Guentzel and a classic winner from Evgeni Malkin.
Because this one, with all due acknowledgement to the burst of speed between the blue lines and Danton Heinen's precise push forward to feed him in stride, came with hockey's ultimate style point of a soft, sweet finish.
I asked:
"I used to do that play a lot in college," he explained, referring to his time at St. Cloud State in Minnesota, where he scored 29 goals in 107 games over three seasons in 2016-19. "I knew the guy was on the left side."
Meaning Rasmus Sandin, Washington's defenseman who was chasing -- and chopping -- him down the ice.
"I thought if I could pull it to the left and just try to beat him on the right side, it would work. And it did."
Now that time, he means Darcy Kuemper, the goaltender who bit hard.
Watch again, this time slower:
Kuemper's got no choice but to respect all that speed, so he starts sliding right, the glove doesn't stay high enough and ... oops. Poehling essentially spoons the puck back up where he wanted.
Might seem like excessive raw talent for a bottom-six forward -- Poehling's currently centering the third line -- but he comes with pedigree well beyond that: He was the Canadiens' first-round pick, 25th overall, in the 2017 NHL Draft, and he sent Montreal into a frenzy with a hat trick in his very first game. And earlier this season, he registered the single fastest skating time in a game, per the league's advanced analytics ... yeah, faster than Connor McDavid.
Since then, he's mostly been set back by injuries, including this season, in which he's missed 29 total games over different spans for a lingering upper-body injury that management won't disclose.
"It's been tough," he'd say after this. "You want to be there for your teammates. You want to contribute. This felt good. It really did."
"I think it's huge," Mike Sullivan would say of Poehling scoring for the first time since Jan. 28, though that's a span of only 10 games played. "He's gone through a lot this year. I thought he really showed his speed on that goal, which is an important aspect of his game and helping us in so many ways. He's got a long reach, and he's a smart player on both sides of the puck. I think there's another level to his offensive game, but his defensive game is really solid, and his speed is a big part of it. I thought his speed was evident on the offensive side in that circumstance."
Sure was to Sandin and Kuemper.
