Penguins ease new forward Rickard Rakell into lineup

Rickard Rakell’s debut with the Penguins was hardly one for the ages.

During a 5-1 home win Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Rakell was mainly used on the third line, clocking 14 minutes, 8 seconds of ice time on 17 shifts, including 1:21 with the second power-play unit. He also had two shots on three attempts and even stepped in on a single faceoff, winning it.

In his first game wearing a Penguins jersey, Rakell was mostly inert. And that was very much intentional.

After the Penguins formally acquired him via trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Monday afternoon, Rakell got on a flight from California later that evening and landed in Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning.

His midnight run to his new employer left him a bit fatigued. And considering he missed three games due to an undisclosed injury before being traded, he wasn’t exactly spring fresh.

Still, he enjoyed being thrown into the mix immediately by his new team.

“A lot going on the last 24 hours,” Rakell said. “But it’s been awesome. Just coming here, the warm welcome that I got from the whole organization with players, staff, it’s been great. It was probably for the best to rip the Band-Aid off and get to play right away. I had a lot of fun. The legs (weren’t) the best I felt. But it was great just to get right back into it and be around the guys and get the win in this game.”

While Rakell didn’t have a notable tangible effect on the outcome of the game, his presence certainly affected his new teammates.

“When you get a caliber player like that, I think it shows (management wants) to win,” forward Jake Guentzel said. “It kind of puts us all on notice that we have something special here. We’ve just got to be ready to go down the stretch. We’ve just got to make sure we come together as a team as fast as we can with the guys that we’ve added. It’s going to be a fun time. It’s going to be a fight to make the playoffs and then go from there.”

Where Rakell goes from here in terms of the lineup remains to be seen. On Tuesday, he primarily skated on the left wing with Jeff Carter at center and Kasperi Kapanen on right wing. During his first shift of the game, he set up Kapanen on a marvelous scoring opportunity.

Driving up the left wing into the offensive zone, Rakell fended off Blue Jackets defenseman Dean Kukan, spun around off the end boards and, from the left corner, he slipped a pass to the front of the crease for Kapanen who couldn’t cleanly accept the puck and failed to get off a shot.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan offered a frank assessment as far as any future Rakell might have in terms of playing with Carter on a regular basis.

“I don’t see him being a left wing with (Carter) in the big picture,” Sullivan said. “Under the circumstances, he’s coming in with very little sleep, coming across the country, has very limited knowledge of how we’re trying to play. We’re trying to put players in positions to be successful. If we had put him in the top six (forwards) tonight, that would have been a real tough challenge. Maybe an unfair challenge for any player, for that matter.

”I would envision our coaching staff moving some people around here the next few days once Rakell gets more familiar with how we’re trying to play and we get more familiar with him. … There will be a little bit of that going on here the next week or so.”

Rakell is listed as a right winger but has primarily been used on the left wing for most of his 10-year career.

“I would say I’m really comfortable playing both sides, I played left wing for most of my years in Anaheim. I’m fine either way. Tonight, I felt we had some good scoring chances. We could have easily had one or two tonight. It’s something you build on moving forward.”

Just moving to Pittsburgh was something of an adventure.

“I took a red eye at 11:30 (p.m., Pacific Daylight Time),” Rakell said. “I got in around 10:40 (a.m., Eastern Daylight Time). Just went to see the staff for a little bit and then right back to the hotel for some lunch and a quick nap. Came over here early, tried to get all the equipment ready and see all the guys. It’s been a lot going on. I’m super excited and super happy.”

Part of that jubilation for Rakell is rooted in now being teammates with superstar forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

“All those players, growing up, those are your idols,” Rakell said. “To be in the same room as those guys, I’m just going to try to take it all in, try to learn from them and just try to pick up on the small details of their game that could improve on my game. I’m just going to try to be a sponge and soak it all in.

“I think I can bring a little bit of everything. Speed, skill and try to play a physical game to win pucks back and create some chances in front of the net. I’m just trying to work in some chemistry as fast as I can. I’m really excited.”

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