from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

Elite scorers such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin remain elite scorers once they reach the NHL. But for some of their teammates, they had to change. And the transition wasn’t always seamless.

Many started out with hopes and dreams of scoring 50 goals in pro hockey’s best league. Those vanished, though, as the competition grew stiffer.

That meant players such as Eric Fehr, Tom Sestito, Tom Kuhnhackl, Kevin Porter and Trevor Daley had to expand their games and become more than one-trick ponies. While Sestito relied on his fists, the other four learned how to play defense and, to varying degrees, do the dirty work the NHL’s premier players aren’t required to do, such as hurling your body in front of a slapshot.

“Everyone wants to come in here and be a goal-scoring forward and score that big, game-winning goal,” Porter said. “That’s not always the case. Mentally you have to tell yourself, maybe you’re not skilled enough to be one of the goal-scorers. It’s hard to score 20-30 goals in this league, and to be a skilled forward, that’s what you need to do.

“It’s tough, but I think you just have to be honest with yourself. If you want to play in the NHL, you have to find a way. Sometimes that’s blocking shots and doing the little things.”

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