Defenseman’s next goal will be his first
Dumoulin only regular without one this season
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If Brian Dumoulin scores his first goal of the season at some point in the next two weeks, he might get some surprise company on the ice.
“If there’s a Brian Dumoulin goal over the last six games, I would probably jump over the bench and come tackle him on the ice I’d be so excited for him,” fellow Penguins defenseman Ian Cole said.
Dumoulin has played in 65 games this season without a goal, making him the only Penguins regular who hasn’t scored one.
“We laugh about it all the time in the locker room,” Dumoulin said. “It’s not something that I’m stressing about or anything like that. If it happens, it happens.”
Dumoulin has one career regular-season goal in 158 NHL games over four seasons. That one score came in his second year, Dec. 15, 2014, in a 4-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The assists were from Steve Downie and Nick Spaling, neither of whom is currently on an NHL roster.
Last season, Dumoulin and Kevin Porter had a running bet on who would score first. Neither did before Porter’s season came to an early end in March due to an injury.
Dumoulin has come close this season. He has 13 assists, many of which have come because he had gotten a good shot at the net. He averages 1.2 shots on goal per game but remains stuck with a shooting percentage of .000.
“Usually, I get at least a chance or two a game to score, and once I know those go by, I’m like, ‘Aw [crap]. Gotta wait until next game,’” Dumoulin said.
On March 17 against the New Jersey Devils, for instance, Dumoulin’s shot from the high slot bounced off a few bodies before ending up in the crease, where Jake Guentzel — he of 11 goals in just 35 NHL games — finished it off. Dumoulin has had a number of shots from the point tipped in by teammates, but none that, say, bounced off a defender’s skate and into the net.
“He’s had so many chances to score,” Cole said. “Good shots, good opportunities. Just the law of averages, you would think a puck would just hit someone and go in at some point. It just hasn’t, for whatever reason.”
It’s not like scoring is an entirely foreign concept to Dumoulin, either. He had 11 goals in three seasons at Boston College and netted 15 in 188 American Hockey League games in WilkesBarre/Scranton.
“I know I’m not going to score a ton, but, obviously, there’s some chances that I’d like to bury,” he said.
Usually paired with an offensive defenseman such as Kris Letang or Justin Schultz, Dumoulin’s primary responsibilities fall on the defensive side, and that’s something he takes pride in.
He has accepted, rather easily, that scoring goals just isn’t going to be a regular part of his NHL game.
“It’s not tough to accept because scoring goals is hard,” Dumoulin said.
“I’m not going out there every game and striving to get a goal. That’s not my game. I’m not pushing toward that to sacrifice my defensive game.”
Cole went through a similar spell a year ago, with no regular-season goals in 70 games. He has five this year.
“He hasn’t let it affect his overall game, which I think is a great thing because he’s played great for us,” Cole said. “He’s obviously helping keep this ‘D’ corps together, for sure.”
Of course, there’s also the possibility that Dumoulin is basically the Dos Equis Man of goal-scoring: He doesn’t always score, but when he does, it’s in the playoffs.
He had two goals last postseason (remember, that’s double his career regularseason total) — one in the Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning, as well as the opening score in the Stanley Cup-clinching Game 6 in San Jose.
“I’m glad I was able to score on those, I’m not going to lie,” Dumoulin said. “It makes me feel a little bit better after not scoring these past two years so far. I’ll take a goal in the playoffs over the regular season any day.”
Dumoulin and the Penguins would be just fine if he repeated that scoring trend over the next few months.
“There’s a theory that he’s just saving them up for playoffs because he had two in the playoffs last year,” Cole said. “He saved them up for the Conference final and final. I think that’s what he’s doing this year. He’s going to save it up for even maybe more than one a series this year.”