Rickard Rakell’s summer featured plenty of fun times, like helping to plan Marcus Pettersson’s bachelor party before standing up in his wedding, attending the Taylor Swift concert in Stockholm with his wife Emmeli, and activities with his toddler Daisy.
It also featured plenty of discipline.
The Penguins challenged the Swedish forward to have a strong summer coming off a difficult season, where “I think everyone would admit that the year didn’t go great from the beginning,” Pittsburgh’s President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said. “He had a rough start, then got injured. He came back, and was up and down.”
But as Mike Sullivan said, Rakell – a five-time 20-goal scorer – is a proud guy who cares about the Penguins, wants to be at his best, and has high expectations of himself. “We’ve had multiple conversations around that subject,” the Penguins head coach said.
Rakell took his directives from management and the coaching staff seriously, working mainly on his quickness and nutrition so he could report to training camp ready to bounce back, and return to form.
“So far, so good,” Rakell said. “I feel good out there, and hopefully it’s just going to bring me more confidence.”
Rakell said even though he’s not happy with how things went down last year, scoring just twice in the first 23 games and struggling to find consistency from there, a strong finish for both himself and the team provided a sense of optimism that stayed with him over the summer.
“But also, I think just having gone through that, it's going to help me a lot, because I had a lot of time to think in the summer and just remind myself, like, why I play hockey and just do the things that I love on the ice,” Rakell said. “I just gotta show it. I don't have to prove it to (anybody) other than myself.”
The answer to that question for Rakell is the opportunity to not just play alongside the caliber of talent in this room, but to be a sponge.
“You can learn something from Sid, something from Rusty, something from Geno, something from Karl, from anybody here,” Rakell said. “So, I feel like it's just fun to grow your game. I think that's the whole thing. When you feel like you don't like the learning process anymore, then that’s the time to hang them up.”
Rakell’s training process over these last few months centered around improving his speed. That included plenty of work on the turf – “a lot of jumping” – that helped Rakell improve his athleticism, and should translate to the ice.
Additionally, Rakell tried to eat more salads, usually having one to accompany steak he barbecued for lunch. The 31-year-old also cut out a lot of sweets, particularly the ones that come with his beloved ‘fika,’ a Swedish tradition of taking a break to enjoy a hot drink – usually coffee – and a snack.
“Like chocolate balls, or almond pastries, or cinnamon buns… everything that goes well with coffee,” said Rakell, who would turn down the treats and just have coffee, either black or with oatmilk. “It was a tough battle. Actually, it’s a lot of birthdays in the summer. So yeah, it was tough. I had a little bit of cake for just birthdays. Other than that, I tried to stay away from it.”
Pettersson knows how much Rakell enjoys his fika, as it’s something they bonded over when Rickard first arrived in Pittsburgh, so he can appreciate the sacrifices it took to do what’s best for his body.
“He’s committed, I would say,” Pettersson said. “I think you can tell he wants to go out there and make a difference. I think he's looked very fast. I think you can see how committed and hungry he is.”
“He’s a great pro. A lot of peoples’ careers are defined by how they bounce back from seasons when they don’t go well,” Dubas added. “He’s too good of a player not to have a bounce-back. I’m confident that he will. I look forward to that happening.”
