PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Coming off a career year, forward Rickard Rakell tells 93.7 The Fan the Pens have had a really good training camp and they are ready to put it to the test and see what they can do, starting Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Rickard will likely start the season on the top line, Sidney Crosby’s line, as he joins the shrinking list of veterans on the team. Starting his 14th season in the league, 12th full time, Rickard has 10 new teammates this year and a few others he played with very sparingly last season. He also has a new coach for the first time in four years as the Pens hired Dan Muse to replace Mike Sullivan.
“He works really closely with the players and wants to get our view on our playing and what we like and don’t like on the ice,” Rickard told Don Chedrick on the PM Team Monday. “We are all working together towards the same goal. It’s been really good so far.”
The 32-year-old expects that to include more possession time with the puck this year and it appears the team will be a little faster than last season. He said he feels really good about it.
Rakell should feel good about a lot with his game. Last year the native of Sweden scored 35 goals, his most ever beating a previous high of 34 in 2017-18 with the Anaheim Ducks. He also set a new points career-high with 70. He’s trying to approach this season the same way.
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“The mindset coming into training camp, the year before it wasn’t my best year,” Rakell told 93.7 The Fan. “I put the work in the summer and came with a fresh mindset. I just tried to come into to try to make the team and play my game and do what I think I’m good at. It worked out so nothing has changed for this year except for trying to be a little bit better, set the bar higher and push for the next opportunity.”
Rakell says he tries to learn from Crosby, calling him one of the best players to ever play the game. He works to learn from him every day and said where he’s profited from Crosby’s example is doing the small things, pushing every shift and not taking anything likely.
After hearing the trade rumors last year, he has an interesting approach to all that talk.
“You try to not read everything, but it’s kind of impossible with the world we are living in,” Rakell told the PM Team on 93.7 The Fan. “Nothing really changes for me. You can get traded if you are not playing good enough or you can get traded if you are playing really well, so I guess if you don’t hear anything, you are just mediocre.”
“I’m not going to for that. I’m going to try to just play my game, play the best hockey I can and then try to do everything I can for the Penguins to win as many hockey games as we can.”