Awesome for Kapanen. Hope he thrives there.
I still don’t really understand his tenure with the Pens. The GM brought him back to Pittsburgh for a pricey return, but that Rutherford and Sullivan were not even close to being on the same page about him. Whenever Kapanen went through fallow periods, he would never move in the lineup. Whenever he had good games, his ice time would be somehow clipped to less than 10 minutes (I feel like only a few times in the past few weeks was he “rewarded” by getting more shifts in a good game). And yet for a coach that seemingly had no idea how to use him, Sullivan always seemed to be praising his attitude and seemingly never wanted to sanction a move to drop him. They had their chance in the summer to do it guilt free. And they…brought him back for 2 years. I have to think the coach had some input in that decision.
There was a hat trick game earlier this season, ironically against the Blues, where Sullivan saw he was on fire and rewarded him with more ice time, but that always seemed like the exception to the rule. That came two days after he had a clutch GWG against vegas. I really thought those flashes were a “turning the corner” moment though it wasn’t to be. But I hope he keeps it up with St. Louis and finds his niche again.