Tommy Novak has been excellent over the last two weeks.
The Pittsburgh Penguins heartbreakingly lost their second straight game on Tuesday to the Anaheim Ducks.
They were gifted a power play with 17 seconds left in regulation, and instead of keeping the puck away from the Ducks, they allowed rookie Beckett Sennecke to get it and skate around Bryan Rust and Kris Letang for the game-tying goal with .1 seconds left on the clock. Sennecke sent a centering pass into the goal crease, and Erik Karlsson's glove deflected it in.
The Penguins went on to lose in a shootout, and this loss comes on the heels of Sunday's shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. The Penguins dominated play in that game as well, only to allow the tying goal with less than two minutes left in regulation.
While they were annoying losses, there were a couple of big, bright spots in them, including Tommy Novak's play. He deflected a Kris Letang shot into the goal for a 2-1 Penguins lead in the second period of Sunday's game before tying the game late in the second period against the Ducks on Tuesday. Novak banked the puck off Ducks goaltender Ville Husso and into the net during Tuesday's game.
I bring these two instances up because Novak has been outstanding over the last couple of weeks. At the end of November, I wrote about how the Penguins needed more out of him because he had been a bit inconsistent to start the season. He was fighting it a bit and was second-guessing himself.
At the time, he had been pointless in his last four games and five out of six. However, since then, he has put together some excellent performances, scoring three goals and adding seven points in his last seven games. He's on a four-game point streak and will try to extend it to five on Thursday when the Penguins welcome the Montreal Canadiens to PPG Paints Arena.
Novak was especially great against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 28, a big reason the Penguins came back to win in overtime. He banked a pass off the boards to Sidney Crosby, leading to the tying goal before setting up Kris Letang for the overtime winner. They were both nifty feeds.
He scored against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 1 before adding two assists against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 4, including the game-winning one on Evgeni Malkin's second goal that made it 4-3. He found Malkin at the side of the net for an easy one-timer.
Beyond the raw production, Novak's versatility has been on full display. He has looked excellent next to Malkin, and even when Malkin got hurt following the game against the Lightning, he went up to Crosby's wing and hasn't looked out of place. Per Natural Stat Trick, Novak and Crosby have played 39:36 at 5v5 together this season and have been on the ice for 59% of the shot attempts, 74.8% of the expected goals, 71.4% of the scoring chances, and 88.2% of the high-danger chances. It's a small sample, but they're making life extremely difficult for the opposition when they're in the offensive zone.
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Novak has also played with first-round pick Ben Kindel on the third line, and they have looked solid together at times. It's been more mixed compared to Novak's play with Malkin and Crosby, but he's still an option to go down to the third line once Malkin and Rakell are back from their respective injuries. Malkin is currently week-to-week, while Rakell is getting closer to a return.
I said it over the offseason, and I'll repeat it here: Novak is a jack-of-all-trades player who can play up and down the lineup and in almost any situation. He doesn't kill penalties, but he's been featured on both power play units outside of his usual 5v5 minutes.
He's been a solid playmaker with an underrated release throughout his career, and you're seeing both of those qualities shine as of late. He makes the Penguins a much scarier team when he's on top of his game. Let's see if he keeps it up.
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