Penguins rookie forward Radim Zohorna has shown big promise thus far

Kris Letang is a little bit jealous.

“I would love to have those long legs,” the Pittsburgh Penguins’ All-Star defenseman said with a wry grin.

Before your mind wanders any place scurrilous, there’s a lot of context to that quote.

Like 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds worth of context.

Radim Zohorna.

The Penguins’ rookie forward made Letang, one of the top skating defensemen in the NHL, a bit green with envy this past week.

During the Penguins’ 5-2 road win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Zohorna opened the scoring by moving in a fashion few mammals of his dimensions display.

Taking a cross-ice pass out of the defensive zone from defenseman Marcus Pettersson, Zohorna gained the offensive blue line on the right wing with the type of velocity that usually involves a Norfolk Southern logo. Surging by feeble resistance from Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek, Zohorna cut across the front of the crease and tucked a forehand shot past the right skate of goaltender Igor Shesterkin for his second career goal.

“Long stride,” Letang said via video conference. “Once he gets going, it’s pretty tough to stop him. Pretty fluid for a guy his size.

“It’s pretty impressive.”

The feat almost seemed routine the way the Czech-born Zohorna explained it.

“I did this in the Czech (Republic), and I did it in the (American Hockey League with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton),” Zohorna said. “I was in full speed and went and tried to skate and go to the net. I was a little bit lucky, and I scored a goal. It was nice.”

Two nights earlier, Zohorna made another nice play in recording his first career assist during the late stages of an 8-4 blowout road loss to the Rangers. Chugging into the offensive zone, Zohorna drew a delayed tripping penalty from Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich, recovered to his skates, spun off a check from backchecking Rangers forward Chris Kreider in the right circle and fed a subtle, composed pass to defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who recorded his first goal of the season.

Suffice to say, the embryonic stages of Zohorna’s NHL existence have been promising. In five games, he has four points (two goals, two assists) while primarily being limited to the fourth line.

“We’ve really liked what we’ve seen form (Zohorna) from the minute he’s been in training camp,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve been really intrigued by his game. We think he has good hockey sense. He’s got good offensive instincts. He’s really strong on the puck for a big man. His bottom hand on his stick is really strong, and therefore he’s good in the traffic because he has the stick skills and the strength on his stick to hang onto the puck.

“We knew there was going to be an adjustment to a smaller rink (compared to most European rinks), the pace of play. But we’ve been really intrigued by his game from the start of training camp. With every additional game that he’s getting in the NHL and every additional practice he’s getting with NHL players, I think the pace of the game and just the way he processes it’s slowing down in his mind.”

Zohorna’s success has come as he is playing — and living — in North America for the first time in his life.

“When you don’t know the language well, you’re a little bit shy at first,” said forward Evan Rodrigues, who scored a power-play goal Thursday thanks to a pass from Zohorna. “He was quiet when he came in. As he gets more and more comfortable, he’s speaking up a little bit more. (Forward Frederick Gaudreau) was with him down in (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and the taxi squad a little bit before. (Gaudreau has) done a good job of kind of making him feel confident and bringing him along.”

Zohorna’s command of English is limited — though, it is far greater than the average Pittsburgh sports writer’s ability to converse in Czech — so Penguins coaches have taken something of a deliberate approach in how they’ve guided him.

At the same time, the international language of hockey seems to have overcome that barrier.

“We’re not trying to fill his head with too many thoughts,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to just give him little bits of information or little things that I think can help him. But he’s a real intuitive guy. He’s very active in the learning process. He’s utilizing the technology that we have and some of the different video presentations that put together, all the ways from training camp that define our team concept. He’s pretty active with some of the technology that we have in just trying to familiarize himself with some of those details. ‘Z’ has done a really good job. He’s a pleasure to coach. He’s very receptive. He also has aptitude. He gets it when you interact with him and you offer him your insights. He tends to pick it up.”

“It’s still hard,” Zohorna said. “I’ve played (five) games. I still need to work on it in all my games. I really need to work hard and play hard.”

Listed as a center, Zohorna primarily has been deployed as a winger. Coaches are open to using him at the center role in limited doses, such as with the second power-play unit.

But how about long term? What is Zohorna’s ceiling?

“I’m not sure what it is,” Sullivan said. “We’re real excited about his game to this point. His preferential position is the center ice position. He played center in Europe. It’s not an easy position to play in your first experience (in) the NHL.

“I’m not sure where his ceiling is at, but I do think he has the ability to be a good solid player in this league.”

Note: The Penguins placed defenseman Juuso Riikola and forward Colton Sceviour on waivers Saturday.

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