RUST HITS NEW CAREER HIGH IN GOALS
After Rust tied his career high of 29 goals last week in New Jersey, he said obviously, team success is first. You want to win games, win championships. But a second to that is personal success. So, any time you can hit new milestones and get career highs, especially after 10 years, that means you’re probably doing something right.
“But,” as Rust said, “It’s only 29, and there’s a lot more.”
Rust added two to his total tonight, giving him 31 – passing that mark for the first time as an NHLer.
“I can’t tell you I thought I’d ever score 30 goals. I thought maybe 30 over my career when I first got into the league!” Rust said with a laugh. “But it’s cool. It’s proof that I’ve been working hard, and hopefully, I can keep doing it and get to the next milestone.”
Mike Sullivan, who coached Rust in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before getting named head coach of Pittsburgh in December 2015, also didn’t expect him to evolve into the type of player he is. As Sullivan pointed out, in the American Hockey League, Rust was on their second line and didn’t slot in on the power play.
“I don't know that I've been around a player or coached a player whose offensive game has evolved and developed like his,” Sullivan said. “He deserves so much credit for his passion for the game, his work ethic, to put the time in every day to develop his overall game. It's remarkable what he's done with his career.
“You look at his game right now, the last handful of years he's on a 30-plus pace. This year, he achieves it. He stayed healthy for us more so this year than he has in the past. He plays the game extremely hard, and that's one of the reasons why it's hard for him to play 80 games. Because he puts himself in harm's way a lot and that's what we admire about him, but he's just a terrific hockey player.”