Brassard finally healthy, practices
two or three games before the regular season. He’ll be ready to roll. Just even the pace in practice [Wednesday], you could tell. It was good. He was skating really well.”
Having Brassard back and healthy obviously is a goal for the Penguins, who must get more out of their bottom six — Brassard headlines the group of underachievers — than they did last season.
There are a couple reasons for optimism. One, it’s not like these guys use training camp to actually get into shape anymore; it’s not 1986. They take a couple weeks off at the end of the season, then ramp it up again.
Things were a little different for Brassard this summer, simply because he had to rehab whatever it was that was bugging him at the end of last year — nobody will say — but coming into camp in terrific shape was hardly an issue.
Secondly, Brassard is no longer thinking too much. His wires are no longer crossed between whatever boring, safe play he was supposed to make in Ottawa and something significantly more exciting and uptempo in Pittsburgh.
“Sometimes last year, I was more on my heels,” Brassard said. “I was more passive in the offensive zone. I’m going to try to have a different mindset this year, to try and be more aggressive turning some pucks over and try to play more in the offensive zone. Kind of let myself loose out there.”
That should be good news for Penguins fans. In talking about getting back to his former self, Brassard referenced his time with the New York Rangers. The Penguins should take note and replay his entire 2015-16 season on loop.
That’s when Brassard, deployed in a top-six capacity and playing 17:53 a night, put up 27 goals and 58 points in 80 games. Predictably, Brassard’s confidence soared.
The funny thing about Brassard is the notion that he didn’t adjust to a thirdline role. The drop in minutes — he played 15:12 with the Penguins last season — was real. But Brassard did start 57.5 percent of his evenstrength shifts in the offensive zone, which is better than his career average (57.1).
Brassard’s struggles to make it work last season stirred up talk over the summer of moving Brassard to wing, and coach Mike Sullivan confirmed as much earlier this month in Buffalo. That, of course, was before this illness, before Sullivan took a short leave of absence due to the death of his father.
The Brassard-at-wing experiment remains TBD, but Brassard reiterated he is open to anything — even if he never has played wing in the NHL before.
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to Mike yet,” Brassard said. “I missed 4-5 days. He’s been gone for the last couple days. I’m open to it. Whatever is going to help the team, I’m all for it. We’ll see what’s going to happen.”
The good news for Brassard is that he’ll finally be around to see it with his own two eyes instead of being laid-up on his couch coughing.
“It’s good to be around the guys right now in training camp,” Brassard said. “Getting a few preseason games, I think that’s going to help me a lot.”