Rickard Rakell was admittedly down on himself during a forgettable month that snowballed a rotten start to the year.
When speaking after a practice in Toronto that preceded his return from long-term injured reserve Monday night in a 4-3 win for the Penguins, Rakell conveyed his emotions toward a season devoid of goals so far pretty clearly. The feeling Rakell shared also encompassed the upper-body injury that sidelined him from Nov. 19 until Dec. 18.
“I was in a pretty dark place when everything went down,” Rakell said. “But I think I’ve got some time now to process this. For me, it’s just trying to look at this as a fresh start, new opportunities out there and just try to play my game and reset.”
The sentiment Rakell quietly discussed that afternoon at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ practice facility was echoed by coach Mike Sullivan after his return to the lineup. While Rakell still only has four assists to show for his efforts 18 games into the year, Sullivan portrayed plenty of confidence in the winger who has tallied 20 or more goals in five seasons.
“I think he has the ability to score goals, and I thought this was a good first step for him,” Sullivan said of Rakell’s return. “Hopefully, I think the break will be good for him just to get an opportunity to hit the reset button.
“As we said to him, the season starts tonight: let’s look at it like that and go right at it with a lot of positive energy. I thought he played well.”
With Bryan Rust shelved on long-term injured reserve, Rakell was thrown right into the action at right wing on Sidney Crosby’s line and opposite Jake Guentzel. Before the game, Sullivan pointed to that trio’s prior history as sufficient evidence for why he believes Rakell could be a beneficial addition.
To Sullivan’s point, the “underlying numbers” of a Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell line since the Penguins traded for the Swedish forward prior to the 2022 NHL trade deadline have been excellent. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins have an elite 58.5% expected-goals-share when Rakell joins Guentzel and Crosby.
While Rust is the forward mostly usually deployed at Crosby’s right hip these days, Rakell fully understands his role when skating on the top line.
“Sid, he has his areas in the offensive zone where he likes to hang out and I think [I] just try to get the puck there, and then just try to go to the net and attack after that,” Rakell said. “I think that’s the biggest thing with him: he’s so precise with his passes, so [I] try to work a lot of give-and-go’s.”
In the case of Monday, however, the line left something to be desired. It failed to score at 5-on-5 play on Monday, and each player posted a -2 rating.
Crosby and Guentzel compensated for their lackluster nights at even strength with their special teams work. Both netted power-play goals and assisted on each other’s.
Rakell, meanwhile, was once again prevented from putting a puck in the back of the net. The only great scoring chance Rakell was presented with came at 4-on-3 play in the second period. Rakell saucered a soft shot from the slot wide of the net, then fired the ensuing rebound right into Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson’s right pad.
The play, one where Rakell was seemingly either unsure of what to do or surprised to be so open, showed the kind of rust that’s to be expected after a 12-game layoff.
“It’s never an easy thing,” Sullivan said. “That first game back when you’re coming off injury, and when you’re out as long as he was.”
But Rakell, as he did during the first two months on Evgeni Malkin’s line when struggling to find his shooting touch, found other ways to contribute.
His hard forecheck midway through the first period produced a Minnesota turnover. Rakell scooped up the loose puck behind the Wild net and relayed it to Guentzel at the half wall, who unsuccessfully tried to catch Crosby for a tap-in at the net front.
Such details aren’t lost on the Penguins’ captain, who was quite complimentary of Rakell’s game.
“Really good, strong on Pucks and battles,” Crosby said. “It’s gonna take time, but I thought for his first game [back], he looked really comfortable to me.”
Of course, the Penguins would gladly welcome the goal-scorer who netted 28 of them a season ago returning to form. From Crosby’s perspective, Rakell still resembles the confident sniper who has no problem loading up the shot tracker. Even with as much time as he’s missed, Rakell has the 10th most shots on the team, and finished in third last season.
“He’s working hard and doing all the things you need to do for the puck to go in for you,” Crosby said. “Sometimes, there’s more to the game than just that. Obviously, he takes a lot of pride in that. We all want to produce, but that’ll come.
“He’s doing the right things, working hard and with that, the puck will go in the net.”
Now that he’s healthy and back in the lineup, Rakell’s focus moving forward is to play freely and trust his instincts rather than think too much. He’s leaned on this approach during previous cold starts to the season that turned into solid campaigns.
Rakell hopes he’ll be rewarded once more for his mindset, and can put to rest the narrative that’s followed him thus far.
“Obviously, it’s been a tough season for me so far,” Rakell said. “But I think that’s in the past now. I’m just excited to be back.”
AROUND THE BOARDSDefenseman Ryan Shea cleared waivers Tuesday afternoon and will report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The left-shot defenseman has appeared in 22 games for the Penguins this season and posted a -2 rating…forward Vinnie Hinostroza was also re-assigned to the Baby Pens. Hinostroza has three points in 13 games but hasn’t gotten on the scoresheet since chipping in an assist on Nov. 14.
