BOSTON — Any concerns about Drew O’Connor not being able to make good use of his size could be quelled with just one Bruins power play.
A high-sticking call against Pierre-Olivier Joseph required O’Connor to go on the penalty kill, just as he has so often this season. Twice with his team down a man during Thursday night’s 6-5 win against the Bruins, O’Connor forced turnovers with his long reach and strong forechecking, in turn generating breakaway chances for the Penguins.
Each time, O’Connor came up empty. But he and his 6-foot-3, 190-found frame twice collided with Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman off the rush.
“Yeah, it wasn’t intentional,” O’Connor said with a laugh. “It was kind of a crazy sequence.”
It’d be difficult to glean much from O’Connor crashing into the Bruins’ net on back-to-back plays. More so, they were representative of the fearlessness with which O’Connor has been playing recently.
Including Thursday night’s tally, O’Connor has netted three goals in his last six games. In other words, just two fewer than his season total.
O’Connor’s latest goal came at the net front, where he stationed himself after winning a battle along the end-boards against two Bruins early in the first period. He then hammered home a rebound off a Kris Letang shot from the point, good for the Penguins’ first goal.
O’Connor, 25, is cognizant of the importance in setting up shop right near the blue paint in his second full NHL season. When addressing the subject, teammate Reilly Smith bellowed out on O’Connor’s behalf, “He’s not afraid of anything!”
“I think that’s where a lot of goals are scored, so you try to go there as much as you can,” O’Connor said. “Whether you’re touching the puck or not, you’re looking to screen and set up the offense that way. It’s important to have a guy at the net. So it’s a good place to be to pick up pucks, try to find rebounds, things like that.”
Coach Mike Sullivan believes O’Connor is well-suited for such a role, too.
“He’s hard to push out of there when he’s in there,” Sullivan said. “And he has good hands when there’s a rebound or deflection opportunity.”
As O’Connor demonstrated during the Penguins’ eighth win in 11 games, it’s also not a bad spot to facilitate from. In addition to netting his fifth goal of the year in the opening period, O’Connor dished to Lars Eller from the slot, allowing the veteran center to snipe a goal that gave the Penguins a 4-2 lead entering the first intermission.
But make no mistake: O’Connor won’t be lining up at center anytime soon. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are handling the top two lines per usual, Eller the third and Noel Acciari is proving to be a textbook fourth-line center for the Penguins.
But O’Connor’s various offensive abilities are coming to the forefront at a timely juncture for Sullivan’s squad, which now finds itself just a point out of a playoff spot as the halfway point in the season nears. They were certainly needed when O’Connor was skating in the top six when forwards Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust were sidelined due to injury at the end of 2023.
Now back in his usual role as a third-line winger, O’Connor’s perhaps contributing above expectations.
“He’s shown an ability to score goals at other levels,” Sullivan said. “I think maybe he might be starting to figure it out at this level.”
O’Connor agrees. He thinks he’s been playing better as of late, a bit of an obvious observation when contrasted against his slow scoring start of one goal in the Penguins’ first 21 games.
In lighting the lamp more frequently, O’Connor believes his confidence in his overall play has grown. Earlier in the year, O’Connor found he’d had chances to score but couldn’t capitalize on them.
“I’ve just been fortunate the puck’s gone in a little bit more,” O’Connor said. “It’s nice to get those bounces a bit more now. So, it’s been a good little stretch.”
For the Penguins’ sake, seeing such a run from O’Connor continue would be welcomed. The same applies to other depth forwards like Jeff Carter, who has two goals in the Penguins’ last four games.
But in setting a new career high for points Thursday night with his goal and assist, it’s clear O’Connor has elevated his game. So long as he keeps pestering goalies near the crease, O’Connor’s offensive success has the makings of being sustainable, much like the other aspects of his game.
“I think I’m just doing a better job of holding on to pucks and creating a little bit more offense,” O’Connor said. “Just try to keep playing that same way, and hopefully that offense keeps coming.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1
First Published: January 5, 2024, 4:19 p.m.
Updated: January 6, 2024, 3:07 a.m.
