Rust Debuts in Loss to Toronto; Malkin Gets 1,300th Point

Bryan Rust made his season debut in Pittsburgh’s third game of the season on Saturday in Toronto, a 4-2 loss to the Maple Leafs.

The winger had been dealing with a lower-body injury since the end of September, with Kyle Dubas saying they wanted to be cautious with Rust’s situation. He referenced what Rust went through last season, missing three games at the end of November before returning for five, and then getting sidelined again for 10.

“He's continuing to push, and it makes it worse, and then we have to sit him for a good length of time. So, I would rather be more cautious now with Rusty,” Dubas said last week. “If you don't chain him down, he's going to play.”

Rust was deemed ready to go for tonight’s contest against the Maple Leafs, moving into his usual spot on Sidney Crosby’s right wing. His line had a good first shift that set the tone for the opening minutes, where the Penguins did a good job of establishing the relentless puck pursuit game they want to play. Talking with Rust after the game, he said he would have liked to see that translate more on the scoresheet.

“My legs felt good,” he said. “I think kind of with and without the puck, just kind of reading plays offensively, I wasn't as sharp as I'd like to be. Kind of missed a few plays there, especially in the first period, where we could have scored some goals. Definitely have to kind of just get up to speed with that and do it as soon as next game.”

Rust slotted back in on the top power-play unit for Pittsburgh’s first opportunity of the game about midway through the period. Kris Letang converted with an absolute rocket of a shot into the top far corner.

“The forward hit something on the ice, he lost his edge, so that allowed me to walk in,” Letang said.

However, the Leafs regrouped and started strong in the second period. William Nylander converted a 2-on-0 rush just 50 seconds in. Matthew Knies capitalized on a fortuitous bounce at the 2:53 mark. While the Penguins settled in a bit after that, they weren’t able to convert either of their two power plays in that period (they went 1-for-4 on the night).

“I thought we could have put more pucks on the net than we did (in general),” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “We were looking for something better a lot, and sometimes the best play is just putting it on the net and getting traffic there, and we can create opportunities off of it. That's something that we talked about in between periods and on the bench.”

After Mitch Marner put Toronto up 3-1 early in the third with a breakaway goal that came off a Penguins breakdown, Rickard Rakell’s first of the year got the Penguins back within one at the 12:29 mark. Evgeni Malkin recorded his 1,300^th point, becoming just the third active player with 1,300 career points, joining Crosby (1,598) and Alex Ovechkin (1,550).

When asked about the milestone after the game, Malkin said, “when you lost, it’s a little bit different. I’m not looking to my points right now, I want the team to win.

“We have a great start tonight, and after we lost momentum a little bit. But we score second goal, have chance 6-on-5, we’re fighting. But we have to play smarter, for sure. We give them Marner goal, breakaway. It’s like, bad mistake. But we’ll fix the problem and I think we’ll be better.”

Sullivan was more effusive when asked that same question.

“I think it speaks for itself. He's one of the greatest players of all time. He's clearly one of the best players of this generation. We’re fortunate that we have two of them on our team. It's quite a privilege to watch these two guys perform… I know the Pittsburgh fan base feels the same way.”

After getting a win in his NHL debut on Thursday in Detroit, Joel Blomqvist’s performance impacted the coaching staff’s decision to start the 22-year-old rookie again tonight. Sullivan called his play “solid,” saying Blomqvist made some key saves as the Maple Leafs produced some good looks.

“He's pretty calm and composed. He’s a confident kid in net, he’s in his element. We heard so many good things about him in the last few years, and now that he's able to prove it at the NHL level, it's great. Obviously, there's a certain level of maturity that some guys don't have at that age, but he does.”

Overall, the Penguins are, as Sullivan called it, "a work in progress" this early in the season. They had their moments, and moving forward, it's a matter of being more consistent throughout all 60 minutes.

"I think our start was great. I think we saw the first couple of games, it wasn't as good as we would have liked," Rust said. "I think we gotta continue to have good starts, but we gotta continue to try and carry that momentum out throughout the game."

The Penguins finish their three-game season-opening road trip on Monday in Montreal.