Penguins happy with fourth line's contributions

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ final goal in Tuesday’s 5-2 home win against the Montreal Canadiens was generated by their fourth line, currently composed of Brian Boyle, Drew O’Connor and Dominik Simon.

At 9 minutes, 38 seconds of the third period, Simon hounded Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot into a turnover on the right wall of Montreal’s zone. Boyle emerged with the puck in the right circle and wired a far-side wrister for his third goal of the season.

The union of Boyle, O’Connor and Simon was born out of top-liner Jake Guentzel suffering a right hand injury Dec. 6 and leaving the lineup. In the three games since, the fourth line has drawn positive reviews from the man who deploys it.

“They’re all pretty good players in their own right,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “They just bring a little something different to the table. Brian is, I think, a veteran presence. He really knows how to play the game. He’s a cerebral player. He’s good positionally, and he’s got a long reach and a long wing span and he’s hard to play against given his size and his stature. Drew O’Connor brings a ton of speed and power to that line. He’s in on pucks in the offensive zone, and he has a little bit of finish to his game. He can really shoot the puck. Dominik is a guy that is pretty hard on pucks, as well. (He) has some playmaking ability.

“They’re all fairly reliable defensively. We’re able to utilize them in different situations. It gives me the opportunity to try to utilize the bench a little bit so that we can manage workloads. That’s going to be an important aspect of our ability to sustain performance moving forward, is just our ability to utilize the bench. Those guys give us that opportunity.”

Dumoulin rounding into form

There were a handful of notable milestones for the Penguins to celebrate Tuesday.

• Defenseman Kris Letang recorded his 600th career point.

• Forward Sidney Crosby tallied a multi-point game for the 400th time.

• Even journeyman forward Danton Heinen appeared in his 300th career game.

As far as Brian Dumoulin getting his first goal of the season? That’s probably not worth a standing ovation or even an infographic.

But any time Dumoulin scores a goal, it is notable. After all, he only has 16 of them over his nine-year NHL career.

One of the best defensive players in franchise history, Dumoulin hasn’t had the best season of his NHL existence. He routinely has been on the wrong end of one-on-one battles that have led to opposing goals.

From an analytics standpoint, he’s been on the ice for far more shots against (423) this season than shots for (368), according to Natural Stat Trick.

A bout with covid-19 that cost him five games in mid-November did not help matters. But Dumoulin claims he’s past any aftereffects.

“I definitely feel like I’m past that,” Dumoulin said. “Obviously, the first couple of games, getting back from that was tough. The game in Washington (a 6-1 road loss to the Capitals on Nov. 14), playing after one practice, that was difficult. It’s really tough because not skating for 10 days, I tried to convince myself it was like a bye week or something of that nature but it wasn’t for other people. I could definitely feel the speed difference coming back. I’m glad to have that behind me.”