Rodrigues fueled by confidence
NEWARK, N.J. — If you began to lose confidence in Evan Rodrigues earlier this year — as he flubbed all those chances alongside Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel — you’re not alone.
Rodrigues himself admits that he too went through some periods of self-doubt.
“I thought I personally had a stretch of three-four games that I wasn’t playing very good,” Rodrigues said after Thursday night’s game. “I had a talk with [coach Mike Sullivan]. He just kind of told me to be confident and trust myself. Since then, I’m making plays, wanting the puck on my stick. I want to be a difference maker.”
He certainly was on Thursday night.
The versatile forward recorded a power-play goal and an assist in a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Over his past nine games, he has racked up five points — three of them goals — helping to add critical secondary scoring at a time an injuryplagued lineup needs contributions any place it can find them.
“For me, a lot of it is personal,” Rodrigues said. “When I believe in myself, I play better.”
In the virtual world in which we live, follow-up questions don’t exist. So we don’t know exactly when that conversation with Sullivan happened. But looking at the stats, there seems to be a turning point.
On March 24, the former Buffalo Sabres forward was everywhere in a contest against his previous team. He scored a goal and could have had about three more, ripping eight shots on net.
Beginning at that moment, his stock has begun to rise. For a player who makes the veteran minimum ($700,000), he’s bringing value and versatility that exceeds his salary cap hit.
“He’s a versatile guy,” Sullivan said. “That was one of the reasons we signed him. He can play up and down the lineup. He can play the center ice position. He can play on the wing. He could
kill penalties if we need him to. He can play on the power play.”
“There isn’t a role that we’ve put him in and he hasn’t embraced. He’s a real good player.”
It’s easy to see why Sullivan likes him. Rodrigues isn’t necessarily our old friend Dominik Simon. Like we just said, he’s actually scored a goal — five of them, in fact, in 24 games.
But he possesses some of the similar attributes, namely he is a shifty player with good puck possession skills. He fares well in the advanced metrics and can theoretically play a complementary role on a line with the skilled players.
On ice at 5-on-5, he’s recorded an expected goals percentage of 51.30%. Among Penguins forwards with at least 20 games played, that ranks behind only Jared McCann, Bryan Rust, Crosby and Brandon Tanev. And he’s been on the ice for more high-danger chances (51%) than he’s allowed.
In particular, the quicktwitched Rodrigues has been especially dangerous off the rush, including on Tuesday night when he doinked a breakaway attempt off the iron. No word yet if he’ll be
forced to grow a mustache — or at least a soul patch — for that, as is tradition these days.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Rodrigues generated 1.15 rush attempts per 60 minutes during 5-on-5 play. That’s the most on the team.
Rodrigues is finding himself alone in open ice more than twice as much as 40-goal scorer Jake Guentzel (0.66), speed demon Kasperi Kapanen (0.6) and fleet-footed defenseman Mike Matheson (0.54).
You may be reading this with your fists balled, still thinking back to all those chances Rodrigues whiffed on when he was playing alongside Crosby and Guentzel to start the season.
Here’s the thing: While Rodrigues is versatile enough to play a top-line role, he’s paid like a fourth-liner (or even a backup) and more-suited for something in the middle six. More recently, he has been doing exactly that alongside McCann and Zucker. That line has produced a number of chances in each of the last couple of games.
“Every time we come off the ice, we’re trying to pick out what we could have done better or where we’re going to be on the ice,” Rodrigues said. “When you know where your teammates are without looking, you can make plays quicker and have more chemistry. Make quicker passes. You feel more confident trusting your teammates.”
Now, as the Penguins get healthy, it will be interesting to see which pieces of this trio they choose to keep together to round out the bottom six.
Blueger not ready to return
The Penguins will again be without their typical third-line center, Teddy Blueger. The team ruled him out for Friday night’s game in New Jersey.
The 26-year-old center previously played March 15 against the Boston Bruins. At the time, the Penguins said he would be out longer-term with an upperbody injury. He now has been skating in a full-contact capacity for more than a week.
Another center option?
When Blueger and Evgeni Malkin return from injury, the Penguins will have some interesting decisions to make at the center position. Frederick Gaudreau, McCann, Mark Jankowski or maybe someone acquired at the deadline could all fill that role.
While the Penguins don’t want to put too much on Radim Zohorna’s plate, it sounds like he could eventually be an option in the middle, too.
“He’s another guy that his preferential position is the center ice position,” Sullivan said. “He played center in Europe. It’s not an easy position to play your first experience in the NHL.”
Sullivan pointed out that Zohorna won the draw on Thursday night to help set the stage for Rodrigues’ goal. If nothing else, when he’s in the lineup, he can take the occasional draw.
“He has a versatile game,” Sullivan said. “I’m not sure where his ceiling is at. But I do think he has the ability to be a good, solid player in this league.”