CHICAGO, Illinois - It would have been easy to lose hope.
Bryan Rust went 21 consecutive games without scoring a goal, and only had one tally in the opening 29 games of the season for Pittsburgh.
"Try to stay positive," he said of the slump. "Any time you don't play as well as you like or things don't go your way for a long period of time it can be frustrating. You just have to stick with it, and try to remain as positive as possible."
Positive he remained. Persist he did. Results he earned.
Rust breaks slump with hat trick
On Wednesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, Rust didn't just kick open the door; he kicked the entire door off the hinges.
Rust scored not once, not twice, but thrice for his second career hat trick as the Pens fell, 6-3, at the United Center.
"It was a sense of relief," he admitted following the game. "The confidence does go up a little bit. I tried to hold onto the puck a little bit more. Whoever I was on the ice with, I thought we were playing well in the O zone and getting chances."
Still, the final score was not what Rust had hoped for in a hat trick game.
"The only thing right now that matters is our team success," he said. "We had some things slip tonight. We can be stronger."
It seemed like everything was going wrong for Rust during the 21-game drought. He hit posts, missed an empty net and even had a breakaway chance thwarted when his intercepted pass knocked the stick, literally, out of his hands.
"That's the way it goes," Rust said of his plethora of misfortune. "As long as you try to keep the same attitude, keep the same work ethic you can battle through bad times. When the good times do come, they come well."
In a complete reversal of Murphy's Law, Rust was getting every break from the hockey gods permissible. In fact, he probably could have finished the night with four or five goals.
"That's how hockey works," he said. "Sometimes the puck finds you and sometimes it doesn't. It found me tonight."
Rust scored the Pens' only three goals of the game. It started late in the first period when Rust sniped a shot into the top corner. He followed that up - and followed up a shot by Derek Grant - with his second of the night off of a rebound chance.
Rust was twice thwarted on his attempt at the natural hat trick. Both times he had the puck all alone in the slot. On the first play he tried to drag the puck, unsuccessfully, around the outstretched pad of Corey Crawford. On the next he quickly snapped off a shot that Crawford consumed.
But with less than a minute to play in the second period, Rust's fortune shone. His attempted centering pass from below the near circle went off of the stick of Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook and into the net. Rust raised his arms into the air and glanced upward into the heavens. Hats flew onto the ice in celebration of the unnatural hat trick.
"He had a great night," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought he worked for all of his opportunities. He's one of the guys that we had that was skating, on the puck, playing the game on his toes."
Whether Rust is scoring or not, he's been contributing in his own way for the Pens all season long. Whether it's been on the penalty kill, bringing energy to his line, moving up and down the lineup and playing with pace.
"I've always been a believer that Rusty brings more than just his numbers suggest. He's an important part of our team," Sullivan said. "I know it's never from lack of effort on Rusty's part. He's a trier. I'm really happy for him that he got rewarded tonight."
