Secret weapon
Hainsey delivers unexpected offense and expected defense
The Penguins certainly didn’t acquire Ron Hainsey for his goal-scoring ability. But if he’s able to put one in the net, it’s generally a sign things are going pretty well.
That was the case Thursday night, when Hainsey’s second-period goal put the cap on the Penguins’ 6-0 romp over Nashville in Game 5 of theStanley Cup final.
“It was awesome,” defenseman Justin Schultz said. “He’s got some skill and he showed it off there. It was awesome to see him finish it off there.”
Hainsey was among the numerous Penguins who bounced back from two suboptimal performances in Nashville in Games 3 and 4. He was never really in any danger of losing his lineup spot — in no small part because the Penguins aren’t exactly overflowing with defensemen — but he definitely didn’t have his best moments in those losses.
In Game 5, Hainsey and defense partner Brian Dumoulin were more assertive and effective breaking out of their zone, springing their forwards, well, forward, rather than the seemingly aimless defensive-zone passing that went on at times in Games 3 and 4.
“We were good coming out of our end and coming out together, which is a lot of things,” Hainsey said. “It’s trying to get back there and make a play, it’s having the forward there and it’s the offside [defenseman] jumping. If it all works out, we had a lot of plays in the first where we were able to do that.
“That’s the plan every game, but they’re forechecking, and it doesn’t always work out that way,” Hainsey said. “We’ll try to do it again.”
Those plays weren’t there in Games 3 and 4, but Hainsey said the Penguins didn’t alter much systematically with their breakouts in the two days between games.
“There’s always different things that factor in, where the dump-in is,” he said. “We didn’t make any grand changes.”
Even if it was just minor changes, the payoff was goals, and lots of them.
Hainsey picked up a secondary assist on Evgeni Malkin’s first-period goal, on a play when he got Malkin the puck behind the net, and Malkin sprung Phil Kessel with a stretch pass before catching up with the play himself.
Those three connected again late in the second, with a series of tic-tac-toe passing in the offensive zone. Only this time, it was by far the third most likely person to score in that group finishing off the goal.
“That’s not something that we grow to expect when he takes the puck coast to coast,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Friday. “For him to get rewarded with a goal [Thursday] night is huge.”
Hainsey said he just followed the blueprint of what several Penguins wingers have done over the years.
“I’ve certainly seen it on TV, and it certainly happened to me, where one of these great forwards makes a great play like that, backhands under a guy’s stick or through someone, right on the tape,” Hainsey said. “A tremendous pass [from Malkin].”
It was Hainsey’s second goal of these playoffs — which also represents the totality of his postseason career. For a guy playing in his first Stanley Cup playoffs, he’s certainly making it count.
But even though Hainsey now has played eight more playoff games for the Penguins than he did regularseason games, he knows it’s far from over.
“I think we know certainly that this is great,” Hainsey said. “A great home win, we took care of business here, like we wanted to. We now have an opportunity to clinch on Sunday. We have a huge, huge challenge.”