Third line's a charm for Penguins' Wilson, Sheary

Separated by just a few stalls in the Penguins' dressing room, forwards Scott Wilson and Nick Bonino over the course of months learned to poke fun at their own and each other's lack of puck luck.

Wilson found the back of the net twice in the season's first six games but tallied just seven more goals in his next 77 games, including five in the Penguins' first-round series against Columbus.

Bonino started slow for a second straight year, as he had one goal in the season's first 23 games and nine through 60 appearances. A burst of 10 goals in his next 25 times in the lineup followed.

Conor Sheary sits close enough to Bonino and Wilson to know their comedic routine. He rarely had a reason to get involved during the regular season — he never went more than seven games without a goal, and on only four occasions did a goalless drought last more than three games.

Without a goal in five playoff games plus his regular-season finale and likely to skate beside Bonino and Wilson to open the second-round Washington series Thursday, Sheary is in no mood to join the puck luck pity club now.

For the Penguins to get past the Capitals for a second straight season, they will potentially need Sheary, Wilson and Bonino to replace 2016's ‘HBK Line' as the trio that tests the depth of Washington's forward and blue line corps. Neither winger possesses the offensive gifts of Phil Kessel or the speed of Carl Hagelin, but they share a history of strong territorial play and timely scoring as a tandem, even when put with Kevin Porter or Oskar Sundqvist.

“It's a good opportunity for us both,” Sheary said. “We can maybe rekindle the fire, so to speak, on the chemistry we had last year. I think it can be helpful for our team. And with Bones on our line, he's a smart two-way player, and I think if we can all mold together, we can be an important part of this series and an important part of our team's success.”

Wilson and Sheary took the American Hockey League by storm under Mike Sullivan in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the first few months of the 2015-16 season, when they combined for 29 goals and 43 assists with the Baby Pens. Both filled sheltered roles upon reaching the NHL.

Wilson's rookie campaign ended with a lower-body injury he suffered in early March.

Sheary ascended to a full-time spot on Sidney Crosby's left wing by the middle of the Penguins' first-round series against the New York Rangers and rarely stumbled in that role during the 2016-17 regular season that followed.

No matter the responsibilities Wilson handled in 2016-17, he continued to strive for the examples set by Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz. He piled up hits and crashed the goal crease to create offense. In the limited even-strength ice time he received, Wilson ranked second among the Penguins in individual rate of shot attempts (15.25 per 60 minutes of five-on-five ice time), fourth in shots-on-goal rate (9.0) and sixth in scoring chances rate (3.50).

Sullivan continues to seek the right slot in the lineup for his many young wingers, each of whom offers distinctive styles. He's willing to see what happens when Wilson, tasked with heavy defensive-zone usage, and Sheary, given ample offensive-zone opportunities, reunite.

“Some players have, I think, more potentialities than others,” the coach said. “But there's no perfect players out there. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We're trying to play to our strengths and improve our weaknesses.”

With Wilson and Sheary together as linemates since the start of Sullivan's tenure as coach — 117 minutes of five-on-five action — the Penguins held edges in shot attempts (104-96), goals (5-3) and scoring chances (15-12), according to Corsica Hockey.

Compare that to Sheary's 245 shared five-on-five minutes with Jake Guentzel, during which the Penguins experienced much more end-to-end activity (297 shot attempts for, 253 against; 18-14 in goals; 64-51 in scoring chances) but controlled comparable shares of the on-ice action, according to Corsica Hockey.

“Me and Bones are thrilled to have a guy like that,” Wilson said of Sheary. “He's shown that he can play with the best players in the world. … I think Shearsy will help us on the offensive side, because me and Bones always joke around that we get our chances but we don't always put it in the net. I hope that he's the key ingredient.”

Bill West is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.