PITTSBURGH — The Penguins had to like what they saw from Rickard Rakell in his first game.
But it was the contributions from the scoring wingers who’ve been here for a while that powered them to Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Jake Guentzel got his 30th and 31st goals of the season and Bryan Rust scored on an incredible individual effort to help them pull away in the second period.
Evgeni Malkin lit the lamp, too, at PPG Paints Arena. Plus, captain Sidney Crosby tallied three points as the Penguins rolled to their third victory in a row.
Before Guentzel and Rust seized the spotlight, all eyes were on the new guy.
Rakell, in terms of cost, is the most substantial acquisition of the still-young Ron Hextall era. To acquire the 28-year-old winger, the Penguins sent a second-round pick, goalie prospect Calle Clang and roster players Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon to the Anaheim Ducks before Monday’s NHL trade deadline.
Coach Mike Sullivan was pumped to plug him into his Penguins lineup even though Rakell did not arrive in time to participate in Tuesday’s morning skate. Sullivan feels Rakell is a good fit in terms of their fast-paced, skill-based game, but also in that he gives them what they need from a roster construction standpoint.
“He’s a good goal-scorer,” he said. “He has good offensive instincts, but he also has awareness away from the puck, which is an important aspect of winning.”
Rakell twice topped 30 goals in a season earlier in his NHL career. He had 16 goals and 12 assists in 51 games for an up-and-coming Anaheim club in 2021-22.
Before the game, Sullivan said he believed Rakell, a righty comfortable playing on either wing, was capable of clicking with more than one of their skilled centers. But they presumably will want to take a long look at him next to Malkin.
“He brings a certain skill set that we think is complementary,” the coach said. “And now it’s our challenge to try to figure that out. And that’s what we’ll do.”
Perhaps looking to ease in a guy whose red-eye from California landed at 10:30 that morning, the Penguins had Rakell start out on their third line. He skated at left wing. Jeff Carter was his center. Kasperi Kapanen was the other winger.
Sullivan said they wouldn’t “paralyze” Rakell with too much information early on. They wanted him to just “trust his instincts and do what he does best.”
Rakell did just that in his first shift in black and gold. Spinning out of the corner, he whipped a centering pass onto Kapanen’s blade, but Kapanen couldn’t convert it. Fans at PPG Paints Arena groaned as they plopped back into their seats.
Rakell also outraced a Blue Jackets player to the loose puck and later poked it away from a defender before heading back to the bench for his first breather.
Even with a possible case of jetlag, his spurts of effort were apparent throughout the game, whether it was hard work along the wall, holding off a defender with one hand on his stick or forcing a Columbus icing call with a pesky forecheck.
Rakell logged a little over 14 minutes of ice time in his debut, including a couple of shifts with the second power-play unit. He put two shots on goal, threw a hit and was credited with one takeaway. He also won the only faceoff he took.
The Blue Jackets, sellers at the deadline, grabbed a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal in the first period. Gustav Nyquist nudged the skittering puck over the line.
But the Penguins stunned the Blue Jackets with three goals less than five minutes apart. Radim Zohorna scored 2:40 into the second period. Guentzel finished off a fantastic cross-crease feed from Crosby. Rust pushed the lead to 3-1.
Rust kicked down Malkin’s rising pass in the neutral zone, poked the puck past Cole Sillinger then made something out of nothing with a nifty move in tight. He got Blue Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo to drop, then beat him to the far post.
A shot ricocheted in off Guentzel to put a bow on a dominant second period.
In the third, Malkin scored on a power play, his second goal in as many games.
The Penguins will be back on the ice Wednesday, visiting the Buffalo Sabres.
