Brayden Schenn scores first NHL goal on biggest regular season stage

Photo Courtesy of AP/Yahoo Sports

Brayden Schenn couldn’t have imagined a better way to score his first career goal than the way he did Monday. During the second period of the Winter Classic against the New York Rangers, Schenn pushed the Flyers to a 1-0 lead when he buried a rebound into an empty net.

His celebration was priceless. Schenn gave a fist pump before leaping into the boards with excitement of scoring his first career goal, but also knowing he gave his team a 1-0 lead in the NHL’s biggest regular season game.

Unfortunately, the Flyers ended up losing 3-2 to the Rangers.

But for Schenn, his performance in the Classic was his best showing in the orange and black. The 20-year-old center finished the game as a plus-one with one goal, and winning 75 percent of his faceoffs in 13 minutes of ice time.

Coming into Monday’s tilt with New York, Schenn was a minus-eight in eight games with no points. His return from concussion Pittsburgh was his best showing until the Rangers game.

In Thursday’s 4-2 win against the Penguins, Schenn played 10 minutes where he showed some pretty solid defensive awareness. In the first period, Schenn had a potential goal saving body check on Evgeni Malkin in between the faceoff dots.

Because of his strong play in Pittsburgh, Schenn was rewarded with six more shifts and three more minutes of ice time. His play continued to be on the rise

When Schenn left Citizens Bank Park, his stats looked a little bit better. The younger brother of Toronto’s defenseman Luke Schenn, Brayden Schenn can now say he has at least one goal in the NHL.

Now that the monkey is off his back, Schenn can only become a little more comfortable. That’s one less pressure he has to worry about.

His Winter Classic goal was memorable, but no one is expecting that to be his last.