Freeze Frame: Dumoulin's 'Norris Trophy-winning pass' taken at PPG Paints Arena (Penguins)

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Jason Zucker scores on Nashville's Juuse Saros in the first period Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.

Jason Zucker doesn't have a ballot in the Norris Memorial Trophy voting.

The Norris Trophy is awarded annually to the league's top defensemen and is voted on by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Brian Dumoulin probably won't garner many votes for the award this year. But if Zucker had a ballot, he'd put Dumoulin at the top of his list for Dumoulin's incredible individual effort to set up Zucker's goal in the Penguins' 2-0 win over the Predators here at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.

Dumoulin was definitely the star of the play, but it was a great effort from all involved. P.O Joseph's perfect, long-range pass right onto the stick of Evgeni Malkin was one of those passes that make you wish that tertiary assists were a thing, because Joseph deserved to be rewarded with something other than a plus-1 for it. Malkin threw a slap-pass to Dumoulin in the slot, who dangled his way through two Predators defensemen, showing great patience holding onto the puck and keeping Predators Juuse Saros locked into his position. Rather than take the shot himself, he fed the puck to Zucker at the last second, who had an easy tap-in past Saros:

I asked Dumoulin for his perspective on that play after the win.

"(Malkin) made a good play," Dumoulin told me. "He had a fake shot to find me off the rush. He passed it pretty hard, so just catching it, I would have loved the opportunity to shoot it too, but I didn't really have that option with how hard the pass was. I just tried to collect it and I saw the (Predators defenseman) go down and I knew Zuck was up in the play back-door, so I just laid one over there."

I asked Mike Sullivan what his reaction was to that play when it happened.

"It's a great pass, I thought it was a great play by Dumo," Sullivan said. "Real good poise, great vision. It was just a heck of a play. I thought Dumoulin was pretty active in the offense all night long. He had poise with the puck. And that's what he's capable of, that was a great play by him."

Dumoulin was definitely active. He had three shots on goal on six shot attempts. He was bumped up to the top defense pairing alongside Kris Letang for this game, a move that was first made midway through Tuesday's game in Detroit. It paid off, and the Penguins saw a lot of success on both sides of the puck with that pairing. When Dumoulin was on the ice at five-on-five the Penguins recorded 27 shot attempts and allowed eight for a 77.14 shot attempts-for percentage that led all Penguins blueliners in this game. Dumoulin's presence similarly saw the best on-ice results in unblocked shot attempts (19-5, 79.17%), shots on goal (12-4, 75%) and expected goals (1.28-.18, 87.92%) at five-on-five.

Still, it was that assist on Zucker's goal that was his shining moment. One didn't even need to ask Zucker what he thought about the pass afterward, because the look of excitement, awe, admiration and a little bit of shock was clear as day on his face when he looked at Dumoulin after:

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Zucker's actual take on the pass was just as good.

"That's Norris Trophy-winning pass right there," Zucker observed. "Unbelievable. Great play. Great play by Geno, great play by Dumo. Nice to have a little tap-in right there. I trusted it the whole time. I knew he was going to go toe drag, back-door tap-in. I was just waiting for it."

Zucker can't gift Dumoulin that Norris Trophy as a thank you, but he can give Dumoulin something that he'd probably enjoy just as much.

"He said it was a great pass and that he owes me a bottle of wine," Dumoulin said with a big smile when asked what Zucker said to him after the goal.

Dumoulin said that he's not picky with his wine preference, just something that's made well. But if he had his pick, it'd be a Pinot Noir. Burgundy, please. 

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