Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Cullen a Dark Horse
Matt Cullen is 39 years old. Matt Cullen has been one of the best surprises on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ roster this season. Matt Cullen is awesome.
Perhaps this storyline has been run into the ground already, but Pittsburgh Penguins‘ veteran forward Matt Cullen continues to impress so it’s worth touching on again, of course. Cullen is 39 and has played for 8 teams over his long career; never, though, has he been more surprisingly effective than in Pittsburgh now.
The other day, when he scored his 16th goal of the year, I was watching the game with my mom. Triumphantly, she asked me if I felt like I had been proved wrong about Cullen.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You were so disappointed when the Pens signed him, you thought he was a useless old guy, and now look at him!”
No, no. Not to toot my own horn for my impressive foresight, but from the second we signed Cullen I was excited. I liked what I saw from him in Nashville last season, anchoring the bottom lines of forwards as the Preds had a resurgence.
(She was probably thinking about my reaction toward getting Ben Lovejoy.)
Cullen has moved up and down the lineup, from the second line down through the fourth. He has been more than successful in each position, from being a more stay-at-home center (if that can exist) when flanked by the speedy Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel to a reliable playmaker when paired with fellow veteran Eric Fehr.
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Cullen’s got 32 points on the season, and we only pay him $800,000. What a bargain. Though we don’t yet know if he’ll retire at the end of the season or stick around for another year, I feel confident in saying that he most likely wouldn’t ask for a pay raise despite his success.
The players and coaching staff alike appreciate Cullen’s leadership on and off the ice – Brian Dumoulin calls him “Dad” – and it seems like he’s comfortable enough in the room that he would stay if he was able. I think it’s great that the Penguins do have a room where the players are having fun and enjoying the game while all getting along and building team chemistry.
I would love to see Cullsy stick around for another year. Even as excited as I was for him to don the black and gold, he’s exceeded every expectation I had. (The more I think about it, I was mostly looking forward to his faceoff skills… and I think I was thinking of David Legwand anyway. But still…)
The Pens play the New York Rangers in game four of their playoff series tonight, and I would be surprised if Cullen didn’t make a sizable impact again in this game.