One of the NHL’s feel-good stories of the season thus far has been the quick recovery of Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta from a cancerous tumor on his thyroid gland, which caused him to miss two weeks in November.
While Maatta’s ability to rebound from such a serious ailment has been remarkable, his play on the ice has hardly been perfect since returning Nov. 18.
In the first period of a 3-0 loss to Vancouver Thursday at home, Maatta lost a puck along his own end boards to center Shawn Matthias. Matthias passed to right winger Brad Richardson, who scored the first goal.
Tuesday, in a 1-0 home win against New Jersey, Maatta lost a puck in the defensive zone, which resulted in an unsuccessful breakaway for right winger Damien Brunner while the game was scoreless in the first period.
“Obviously, I can play better,” said Maatta. “Physically, I feel fine but game-wise, I don’t feel like I’m there yet. I know I can get better.”
Maatta dismissed any notion he is feeling any lingering effects from his illness.
“No, nothing like that,” he said. “Obviously missing two weeks of hockey … [is] a tough start for the season. But there’s no excuses for it. I don’t feel like I’m at the level I need to be at right now.
“It’s not like I’m playing bad but I definitely can play better. It’s frustrating having [lackluster] games like that. It obviously wasn’t my best game personally but you’ve got to leave that behind and just take what was good and improve what was bad.”
Crosby wants better
Another significant player who realizes his game isn’t at a sufficient level is center Sidney Crosby. After practice Friday at Southpointe, Crosby was one of the last players to leave the ice after he got in some extra work.
“You just want to get sharp,” said Crosby. “When your game is not where you want it to be, I think you just work on stuff. It’s part of the game. It’s not always going to be easy. You try to find ways to get better and that’s what I tried to do [Friday].”
Crosby, who leads the NHL in scoring with 33 points, has been held without a goal for five consecutive games and has scored twice in his past 17 games.
“I think you’re just always trying to work on stuff,” he said. “Got to find a way to put the puck in the net.”
Dumoulin debuts
Defenseman Brian Dumoulin made his season debut against the Canucks. Paired primarily with defenseman Paul Martin, he logged 15:08 of ice time on 22 shifts.
“Being my first game, there was a little nerves in the first period, especially my first shift,” Dumoulin said. “[Martin] talks a lot and is so calm with the puck. He helps me out when I’m out there and it kind of settles me down a bit. He always talking. He always back hard for pucks. He makes the right plays. I just try to read off him and emulate him.”
First Published: December 6, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
