Reilly Smith, promoted to 1st line mid-game vs. Detroit, notches career assist No. 300 in win

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Reilly Smith didn’t brag when discussing his mid-game promotion Thursday night to the club’s top line alongside Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust.

And he certainly had some grounds to, having contributed a pair of assists — the second of which was his 300th NHL apple — in the Penguins’ wild 6-5 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena, a victory that gave his team two critical late-season points over a fellow team in the hunt for the postseason.

Smith assisted on Crosby’s 41st goal of the year in the second period shortly after coach Mike Sullivan swapped him with Drew O’Connor, who took Smith’s place on the third line with Lars Eller and Valtteri Puustinen.

A few minutes later, Smith notched the only assist on Rust’s goal at 12:44 of the second period, giving the Penguins a 4-2 lead.

On the night, he played 14:54 but did not record a shot.

Following the game, Smith’s thoughts seemed at least equally as occupied with being on ice for Lucas Raymond’s game-tying goal with about five minutes left in the third period.

The goal gave Raymond a hat trick and brought the Red Wings back from the dead, eliminating their second two-goal deficit of the night and tying the game 5-5 before Erik Karlsson eventually won the it for the Penguins in overtime.

“I think there’s negatives and positives,” Smith said. “I think there’s a couple of plays we’d like to have back, but for the most part, it was nice being able to get on the board early, playing with those two guys. They obviously create a lot of offense, but we just have to make sure that we’re not trading chances.”

LUCAS RAYMOND HATTY. pic.twitter.com/jgb135aQCv

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 12, 2024

Raymond’s third goal came after an offensive zone faceoff win by Crosby.

The Red Wings regained possession behind the net and moved the puck up the boards, with Alex DeBrincat tapping it near center ice to an accelerating Dylan Larkin.

Larkin, in turn, passed it to Raymond, who had a pursuing Crosby beat by several yards before firing a wrister past Alex Nedeljkovic to tie the game with 5:07 left in regulation.

But ultimately, for the Smith-Crosby-Rust line, the good outweighed the bad.

“We were able to get a couple more goals, which was nice,” Rust said. “But I think we just found some space offensively, created a little bit. I don’t know what exactly the reason was for that, but it worked out well.”

Rust may not have been in the know when it came to why Smith replaced O’Connor, but Sullivan gave his thoughts on the matter following the Penguins’ win.

“It’s just a feel thing,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes if I don’t think certain guys have their best on a given night, or if a linemate needs a little bit of a jolt, sometimes we’ll tweak those lines a little bit and I just thought it was probably appropriate tonight at this time.”

Smith took his first shift with Crosby and Rust with 12:09 left in the second period.

Seven seconds later, Rust sent a homing missile of a pass cross-ice that connected perfectly with Crosby’s stick, allowing the Penguins’ captain to tap in a goal after crashing the net.

Smith collected an assist on the play rather inadvertently, as a result of a pass from the defensive zone from P.O Joseph striking him before Rust came into possession of the puck.

Fun fact: Sidney Crosby’s 19 points (8G-11A) since Mar. 24 rank first in the @NHL. pic.twitter.com/rtg7B3vYiC

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 12, 2024

Less than five minutes later, Smith played a far more important role on a goal.

Marcus Pettersson had just gotten crushed by Moritz Seider trying to gain the offensive blue line, losing the puck.

But as he fell, he tripped Raymond, who himself was going after the puck.

No penalty was assessed on Pettersson and Smith was there to pick up the pieces, eventually threading a needle between three Red Wings and passing to Rust, who ripped a snapshot past Alex Lyon for his 27th goal of the year.

BRYAN RUST GOES BAR DOWN! ????

And with his assist, Reilly Smith records his 300th NHL helper! pic.twitter.com/1jvCy3xr3n

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 12, 2024

The primary assist gave Smith 300 for his career.

On the year, Smith has scored 12 goals with 27 assists through 73 games.

“It was probably a missed call, but just able to create a turnover and then (Rust) did a good job finding some open space and then had a great shot,” Smith said.

Sullivan made the changes he did even after O’Connor scored the game’s first goal less than three minutes into the third period.

Inserting Smith on Crosby’s line, which the Penguins have done on occasion throughout the course of the year, seemed to bear fruit Thursday, as did O’Connor sliding in with his former linemate, Eller.

“(Smith is) a good hockey player that can play on both sides of the puck and play with those guys,” Sullivan said. “And (Drew O’Connor) is a guy we can move anywhere. We just felt as a staff that it was an appropriate thing to do at this particular point in the game. Gave us a little bit of juice – we scored when we did it. I thought (O’Connor) played well with Lars, so it’s just an option for us.”