At least from the outside, the last 16 months have been a series of ups and downs for Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin.
Setbacks and comebacks. Tough losses and welcome additions. Injuries and attempts to avoid illness.
Let’s recap: The 29-year-old defenseman and his wife welcomed a baby boy named Brayden into the world in November of 2019. A month later, Dumoulin underwent surgery to repair lacerated tendons in his ankle. He returned for five games of the regular season. A pandemic paused the season. He came back again. And the Penguins flamed out of the bubble in just four games.
Then, after a 2019-20 season full of injury and uncertainty, Dumoulin sustained a lower-body injury just seven games into the 2021 season that kept him on long-term injured reserve since Jan. 26. Talk about a whirlwind.
“There’s been some ups and downs,” Dumoulin said. “Especially with my injury last year with how severe it was. It’s never fun when you get that news.
“For me, my outlook on life and my outlook on anything is positivity. I try to stay as positive as I can and try to look at the bright side of things.”
Finally, it appears another comeback may soon be on the horizon. Dumoulin returned to practice in a full-contact capacity on Wednesday for the first time since he sustained that lower-body injury in Boston.
With a possible return approaching, Dumoulin’s uneven stretch — and the light at the end of the tunnel — mirrors that of the Penguins' blue line as a whole. Again, it’s been a story of setbacks and comebacks. Tough losses and welcome additions. Injuries and attempts to avoid illness.
Dumoulin’s injury occurred right in the midst of a brutal stretch, during which the Penguins lost all four of their lefties from the Game 1 roster. Just to fill out the lineup, Yannick Weber was signed off the street, drove 16 hours through a snowstorm and jumped into the lineup after one single morning skate. Rookie Pierre-Olivier Joseph was elevated all the way to the top pair within his first week in the NHL. The club’s seventh defenseman, Chad Ruhwedel, played his off side ... in the top four.
Yet, when Dumoulin does finally return, he’ll find what was once a patchwork blue line is beginning to show some depth and versatility.
“I feel like we have a lot of depth,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We probably have nine or 10 NHL defensemen.”
Consider that, after a slow start, All-Star defenseman Kris Letang has begun to find his game, tallying eight points his last six games. Marcus Pettersson has been elevated into a top-pair role.
The Mike Matheson reclamation project looks right on track, as he’s outweighing his defensive-zone lapses with highlight-reel moments that showcase his skating and skill. Marino weathered some rough moments on the off side to emerge as the same steady righty the Penguins were wowed by during his rookie year.
Even Cody Ceci, who was an analytics-community punching bag when he signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal, has provided a good return on the investment. A former first-round pick (15th overall) in 2012, he played almost all of his 500-plus games in a top-four role before joining the Penguins. Now, Ceci is playing some of the best hockey of his career as a third-pairing defenseman. He’s consistently jumping into the rush and using his big, 6-foot-2 frame to post a plus-4 rating. Virtually all of his possession stats are positive, as well, including a 51.74 expected goals percentage.
Just in case Sullivan didn’t have enough options on the back end, new general manager Ron Hextall added yet another body to the blue line when he claimed speedy righty Mark Friedman off waivers. He tallied an assistant against his former club during Tuesday’s win over the Flyers and drew a penalty while playing his off side.
With newcomers like Matheson and Ceci becoming more comfortable in the Penguins’ system and injured players getting healthy, the once-golden boy Joseph is now waiting in the wings on the taxi squad and the always-reliable Ruhwedel is relegated to the press box. Oh, and then there’s Juuso Riikola, too. What do you do with him?
Is it possible that a blue line that looked like such a concern early this season could be rounding into a strength?
“When we’ve got a complete, healthy group of players, it presents a difficult challenge," Sullivan said. "But I think that’s a good challenge to have.
“It’s going to create a real healthy competitive environment, where there’s going to be an internal push for players to be at their best. As a coaching staff, we’re going to put the best six guys in the lineup on each given night that we think are going to give us the best chance to win.”
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: March 3, 2021, 10:50 p.m.
